Amarina’s dream to play in the World Cup closer to reality

PETALING JAYA: National hockey team skipper Siti Noor Amarina Ruhani’s dream of playing in the women’s World Cup is close to becoming a reality.

The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) have decided to put forward a bid to host the 2022 men and women’s World Cups.

The 31-year-old Amarina, who has been playing hockey for Malaysia for 13 years since 2005, said hosting the World Cup would have an impact on Malaysia.

“It’s every player’s dream to play in a World Cup or Olympics. We’re ranked 22nd in the world and it’s tough to qualify for the World Cup but if we host it, we’ll get to play with the world’s top 16 nations,” said Amarina.

“I don’t want to miss out on the experience of playing against top teams. I know I’ll be older by then, but I badly want to play at home.”

Malaysia last hosted the women’s World Cup in 1983 but the national women’s team did not participate.

After years in the wilderness, the women’s team have shown tremendous improvement in recent years under the guidance of coach K. Dharmaraj.

Their latest success was a creditable fourth-place finish at the Asian Champions Trophy in South Korea on May 19.

Amarina said the MHC under the leadership of Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal have played a key role in pushing women’s hockey to the fore and hosting the World Cup will be another step in the right direction to improve the sport’s standard.

“The World Cup will enable women’s sports, especially hockey, to get more recognition.

“It will also change the mindset of people, especially women to take hockey seriously and may get more girls to choose hockey as a career choice,” said the Penang lass.

“We need to give Datuk Seri Subahan the credit because he has given both the men and women’s teams equal opportunities. This is one of the factors behind the team’s recent progress.”