UniKL boast quality to be new dominant force in hockey league

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) are out to be the new dominant force in next year’s Malaysia Hockey League (MHL).

The university team have six world-class foreigners and they have also hired two national players – captain Muhd Sukri Abdul Mutalib and penalty corner specialist Muhd Razie Abdul Rahim (pic).

Sukri and Razie are both defenders and the duo featured in the World Cup in Bhubaneswar, India, recently. Razie scored two goals in the World Cup.

UniKL also have another national midfielder Mohd Marhan Mohd Jalil, who has been their skipper since last year.

UniKL, who won the TNB Cup (overall cup) in the 2018 season, have signed three Dutch players – Robbert Kemperman, Martijn Havenga and Valentin Verga.

Kemperman and Verga were members of the Holland team that finished runners-up in the World Cup.

UniKL have retained three other foreign players – goalkeeper David Harte of Ireland, midfielder Timothy Deavin and forward Keiren Govers (both Australia).

The 31-year-old Sukri, who has been featuring in the MHL since 2004, said that he joined UniKL because of coach A. Arulselvaraj.

“I like coach Arul’s training method and I’ve trained under him when he was the national assistant coach to chief coach Paul Revington (of South Africa) in 2012.

“Arul has done well to improve the UniKL team in the last few years and they did well to win the overall Cup this year,” said Sukri.

“We have a number of good foreign and local players and believe that we have a team that is good in every department to challenge for silverware.

“We also have Razie, who is a good drag flicker and he was the top scorer in the MHL twice,” added Sukri, who made his debut in the MHL for Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) in 2004 before joining Ernst and Young in 2006.

WithErnst and Young, who became KL Hockey Club in 2009, Sukri won all the MHL titles – league, overall and Tan Sri P. Alagendra Cup.

UniKL face Terengganu in the Charity Shield match on Jan 11.

Seven teams will feature in the Premier Division and the other teams in the fray are Terengganu, Tenaga Nasional, Maybank, Nur Insafi, TNB- Thunderbolt and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM).