Three Malaysian Players May Feature In Indian Hockey League

By M.Santhiran NEW DELHI, Sept 15 (Bernama) -- Three Malaysian players may feature in the upcoming edition of the prestigious Hockey India League (HIL). S. Kumar (goalkeeper), Kevin Lim (defender) and Muhammad Razie Abdul Rahim (defender) would be among 142 foreign and 135 Indian players who will know their fate when bidding starts in the capital on Thursday (Sept 17). Kumar and Muhamad Razie had featured in the league last year as Kumar played for Uttar Pradesh Wizards and Muhamad Razie was with Mumbai Magicians. The six franchisee will bid for players from India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, England, South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Scotland, Malaysia, Japan and Korea to complete their teams. Hockey India president and HIL chairman Narinder Batra told Bernama that several Malaysian players have been taking part in the league for past few years and their presence was certainly felt in the league. He said names of the three players was submitted by the Malaysian Hockey Federation and a select committee of the league agreed with the recommendations and listed the players in the biding list. "We actually wanted more foreign players to take part in the league and that's why we decided each team to be represented by 12 Indian players and eight foreign players," explained Batra. In a related development, new regulation goal-scoring points system would be introduced to make the league more competitive and intense, Batra said during a press conference. He said during the HIL 2016 (Jan-Feb), one of the most significant changes for the 2016 HIL season will be the new goal-scoring system where field goals will be given more priority than penalty corners, with two goals awarded for every field goal to encourage more skilful and tactical hockey. Batra said to curb rough tackles and maintain discipline among players, two goals will awarded to every Penalty-Stroke goal scored (other than from Penalty Strokes resulting from a Penalty Corner). Two Goals will also be awarded for every goal scored from a Penalty Stroke if a goal-bound Penalty Corner is prevented from being scored by a deliberate foul. "Penalty corners give undue advantage to teams which have penalty corner specialists. The new system will bring more excitement to the game, whereby a team leading by 1-0 through a penalty corner goal might lose the match in the end through a single field goal scored by their opponents," pointed out Batra. Hockey India president also announced that the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Competitions and Rules Committee had endorsed the new goal scoring-system. --BERNAMA