Chinese champions to debut in national women’s league

KUALA LUMPUR: The Liaoning Province Club from China are set to add spice in the 2019 National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) scheduled from Jan 10-March 2.

They won the China league this year and will be worthy opponents in the league.

National women’s hockey coach K. Dharmaraj said it would be a new chapter in the history of the women’s league.

“It’s a good idea to invite the Chinese club to play in the women’s league as it will make the league more competitive and interesting,” said Dharmaraj.

“They have a number of national players. Our players will definitely benefit playing against this top club in Asia and it’ll prevent the tournament from being boring.”

He added that the national players needed to play against stronger clubs like Liaoning club to further improve their game.

“Our players need as much exposure as they can against strong foreign clubs,” he said.

“I hope more foreign clubs will join in future to make this league competitive.”

Six other clubs in the fray are Blue Warriors, PKS Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten), KL Wipers, Terengganu Ladies Team, Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (SSTMI) and Penang Sports Hockey Association (PSHA)-MSSPP.

There will be a significant increase in prize money for the women’s league.

The league champions will receive RM50,000, runners-up (RM30,000) and third (RM20,000) compared to the 2018 season prize money of RM20,000, RM10,000 and RM5,000.

Seven local teams featured in the women’s league this year and PKSUniten won the title but they lost out to Blue Warriors for the overall title – the Vivian Soars Cup.