Malaysia ready to face higher ranked teams in 2018 Commonwealth Games — Coach

KUALA LUMPUR: The national senior hockey squad are ready to put up a stiff competition against higher ranked teams at the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia.

National hockey squad head coach Stephen Van Huizen said though Malaysia would face top ranked teams like world number six, India and world number seven, England in the preliminary matches, his players would be up to the task and would prepare for any possibility in the games.

Based on the draw released on the Games website: www.gc2018. com today, Malaysia were drawn in Group B with India, England, Wales and Paki stan whi le reigning champion and host, Australia will spearhead Group A with New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Scotland.

“We knew that other higher ranked teams would certainly join our group and I’m not surprised with the draw.

We accept the challenge and like it or not, we must play better than other teams including minnows to have any hope of qualifying for the semi-finals,” he told Bernama when contacted yesterday.

In this regard, Van Huizen reminded his charges to not take other opponents lightly, such as Pakistan and Wales, who could pull off a surprise.

On the same note, he revealed that the players had already undergone light training after playing with their respective teams in the recent Razak Cup hockey tournament, adding that he had already submitted next year’s programme involving his charges to the Malaysian Hockey Confederation ( MHC).

“The players’ selection for the Commonwealth Games will be done after the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament and also the Malaysian Hockey League and only the best would be given a chance to play in the Commonwealth Games,” Van Huizen asserted.

Based on the Games format, each team in Group A and B will play in the round robin format from April 5-11, 2018 and the top two teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals and the medal matches from April 12-14.

Malaysia’s best performance at the Commonwealth Games was a silver medal feat when hockey was introduced at the 1998 edition in Kuala Lumpur.