Women’s hockey coach mulls training in Holland

KUALA LUMPUR: National women’s hockey coach K. Dharmaraj wants his players to be based in Holland to prepare for the FIH World Series in Ireland from June 8-16 next year.

Malaysia are ranked 22nd in the world and they will face a tough task against higher-ranked teams in the tournament.

The other teams in fray are world No. 8 Ireland – runners-up to champions Holland in the World Cup in London in June, world No. 10 South Korea, Scotland (No. 18), the Czech Republic (No. 19), Ukraine (No. 27), France (No. 32) and another team yet to be confirmed.

Dharmaraj, who guided Malaysia to qualify for the first time in the World League Semifinals in Belgium last year, said they will face a strong challenge in Ireland as only the top two teams will qualify for the next round of the World Series.

“Out of the eight teams that will feature in the World Series, five are from Europe.

“Teams like Ireland, Scotland and the Czech Republic are all ranked higher than us and we need to train and play against the European teams for exposure.

“The best place to train and play matches in Europe is in Holland as they are the world champions.

“We need to be based in Holland for three months to improve every aspect of the game and the weather there is similar to the weather in Ireland,” said Dharmaraj.

“We need to play against the Dutch Division One teams and also with some top Division Two teams to learn the European style of play.

“We hope one of the Dutch clubs will allow us to use their grounds for training,” said Dharmaraj, who has discussed the idea of training in Holland with the Malaysian Hockey Confederation ( MHC) president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal.

“We need to get the approval from Datuk Seri Subahan and also from MHC technical director Terry Walsh to allow us to train and play matches in Holland.

“We have eight national players who are currently playing in four European leagues.”

Goalkeeper Farah Ayuni Yahya is playing for East Grindstead club in England. Nuraini Rashid and Fatin Syafika Sukri are playing for Butterfly Roma club in Italy while Hanis Nadiah Onn and Wan Norfaiezah Saiuti are with German club Wespen Zehlendorfer.

Three players Raja Norsharina Raja Shahbuddin, Surizan Awang Noh and Noraslinda Said are playing for Uddingston Club in the Scottish League.