MHC to do some data crunching after strong show in London

KUALA LUMPUR: While the men’s national hockey team enjoy their well-deserved two-week break, the coaches and officials will be busy conducting a post-mortem of their performance in the World Hockey League Semi-Finals in London.

This is necessary as the team have two more assignments for the year – the KL SEA Games in August and Asia Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in October.

A third assignment – the World Hockey League Finals (December) – is a remote possibility. Malaysia can only qualify if the fourth-placed team in the other World Hockey League Semi-Finals in South Africa this month are ranked lower than them.

So, for now, the World Hockey League Finals are not in the Malaysian Hockey Confederation’s (MHC) plans.

National coach Stephen van Huizen acknowledged that the players deserved the long break as “they’ve been training since March, immedi- ately after the Malaysian Hockey League ended”.

“This break will help them to recharge and be ready for the next stage. The SEA Games will remain a priority, but we first need to look at their performance in the recent World Hockey League Semi-Finals in London and see what needs to be rectified and worked on,” said Stephen.

“We have 23 players in the training squad and some in the development squad. We will look at how to manage the teams effectively and how to give the players the opportunity to gain experience.”

The Asia Cup in Dhaka was earlier a priority event for the MHC as the winner would gain automatic entry to the 2018 World Cup in India.

But since Malaysia had already secured their World Cup berth – by virtue of their fourth placing in London – the MHC have had to re-set their priorities.

“We will still take the two assignments seriously. The only change will be the players we take to the two tournaments,” said Stephen.

“Whatever programmes we come up with after the post-mortem will depend on MHC’s approval.”

Stephen also plans to re-look their three major assignments next year – the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games (qualifier for the 2020 Olympics) and World Cup.

“There are a lot of things to consider, including the domestic league where the players have commitments with their clubs,” he said.