Asia Cup squad to head challenge at Champions Trophy

Sixteen players from the bronze medal-winning side at the Asia Cup in August have retained their places in the national team for the Samsung Champions Trophy hockey tournament, which will be played at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil from Nov 20-Dec 9.

But defender Zulkifli Rejab, who is down with a leg injury, was left out of the squad of 20 named by the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) selection committee yesterday.


Out: Defender Zulkifli Rejab left out due to injury.
And the committee in their meeting, which was chaired by the MHF deputy president, Tunku Abdul Majid Idris, decided against naming two additional players.

Midfielder Nabil Fiqri Mohamed Nor is the replacement for Zulkifli. Forwards Hafifihafiz Hanafi and Mohamed Razie Abdul Rahim also made the grade. Nabil and Razie were dropped from the team to the Asia Cup. Hafifihafiz was also not among the final 18 but made the trip to India.

Goalkeeper Khairulnizam Ibrahim, who did not play in the Asia Cup due to illness, is back in the team – replacing Mohamed Hanafi Hassan.

National coach Sarjit Singh said that those not in the final 20 will continue to train with the team for the Champions Trophy.

“The final squad will focus more on set plays. We also have four practice matches line up against China and Canada. These matches will allow us to fine tune the moves before our opening match against Australia on Nov 29,” he said.

“The rest will be doing a lot of physical workouts and we will name the team for the SEA Games later.”

Sarjit added that Zulkifli would remain in the training squad and undergo treatment.

The Champions Trophy is part of the national team's preparations for the Olympic qualifiers in Japan next year.

Besides Australia, the other opponents for Malaysia are Germany, Holland, Spain, South Korea, Pakistan and Britain.

Malaysia are playing in the top flight tournament by virtue of being the hosts. Pakistan were to be the host but the international federation (FIH) withdrew the tournament from them because of security reasons.

“We will get quality matches. With a round-robin format and a classification match, we are assured of at least eight quality matches,” said Sarjit.

Of the eight teams in the fray, three have yet to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. They are two-time world champions Germany, Malaysia and Britain.