Amin prepared to serve country

Ex-international Mohd Amin Rahim is more than willing to rejoin the national team to help improve the penalty corner conversions for the Olympic qualifiers in Japan in April.

Defender Amin, who will turn 28 next month, said that he is honoured to receive the national call-up after being axed from the Malaysian team after last December's Asian Games in Doha.

“I thought I would never play for the country again. But because there is no good penalty corner flicker in the team, I was called up.

“National coach Sarjit (Singh) approached me before the start of the Champions Trophy last month saying that he wants me to join the national team to beef up the penalty corner conversions,'' said Amin, who will join the national team in training at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil tomorrow.

The national team did not have the services of drag penalty corner flicker Zulkifli Rejab in the Champions Trophy because of a knee injury.

Zulkifli, who went for an operation, will be out of action for a year.

Two other penalty corner flickers – defender Baljit Singh Sarjab and midfielder Jiwa Mohan – failed to score a single goal from penalty corners in the Champions Trophy.

Malaysia played eight matches in the tournament and only managed to score only one penalty corner goal and that too off a set-piece by forward Chua Boon Huat.

Amin was the top scorer for the national team in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games last year. He scored six goals and guided the team to bag the bronze in the Games.

Amin, who has scored 40 goals in 109 international matches, said that despite being out of the national team for a year, he still can flick well from penalty corners.

“I featured for Tenaga Nasional in the MHL (Malaysia Hockey League) and scored 10 goals. I only need to sharpen up.

“However, I need to improve my fitness level as playing in international matches demand a higher fitness level than playing in the domestic league,'' said Amin.

Despite playing in the MHL, he also featured in the Asian Indoor Games for the Sapura team in Macau in October.

Amin, the father of a six-year-old boy, said that he hopes to impress Sarjit in training to win a place for the playing tour to Australia in February.

Malaysia will play nine matches with Queensland and New South Wales in Brisbane and Sydney as part of their preparation for the Olympic qualifiers.

Besides Malaysia, the other teams in the qualifiers are world champions Germany, Japan, Poland, Switzerland and another team that will be named later.