Bumper games in store on MHL’s opening day

KUALA LUMPUR: Fans have a mouth-watering clash to watch on the opening day of the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) season on Jan 6.

Two former overall champions – Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) and Tenaga Nasional – will battle it out in an all-Premier Division clash in the first round of the Tan Sri P. Alagendra Knockout Trophy.

There is also another intriguing opener involving two league champions. Terengganu, the Premier Division and overall champions, will take on Division One winners TNB Thunderbolt.

The third all-Premier Division fight is between Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and UiTM-KPT.

Tenaga assistant team manager Adam Izamry Idrus said they could not have asked for a more challenging opening match of the season.

“It will be tough, so we’ve to be at our very best. But it’s a good test to see how we fare against one of the top teams in the league.

“We reached the final against all odds last season. We will try to draw inspiration from that performance to help us get past KLHC,” said Adam.

Sapura emerged champions last season after beating Tenaga 2-1 in the final. Sapura, however, are not competing next season.

A total of 16 teams – eight each from the Premier Division and Division One – will be vying for the crown. It’s going to be a hectic schedule with the quarter-finals to be staged on Jan 7. The semi-finals on Jan 9 and the final the next day.

The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC), however, have yet to fix the venues for the five-day tournament.

“What we can confirm is that all the matches will be played in the Klang Valley. We are in the midst of checking the availability of the stadiums,” said competitions committee chairman George Koshy.

In another development, the MHC have extended the deadline to Jan 4 for all the 16 teams to register their players.