Malaysia have their hands full at playing hosts next year

A host of foreign national junior teams are due to make their way to Malaysia for training and friendly matches next year.

The Malaysian Hockey Federation secretary, Hashim Mohamed Yusof, said that four teams had made confirmation that they would be in KL while a few others had asked for dates to play against the Malaysian juniors.

He added that South Korea would have a two-week stint in March while dates for the visits by New Zealand, Scotland and Hong Kong were being worked out.

“Our team preparing for the Junior World Cup in 2009 will get some good practice matches in their preparation for the Junior World Cup in 2009,” saidd Hashim.

“Some other teams are also keen to play against our juniors. But we have not given them replies because we have not finalised our programmes. We are also mindful that this will affect our domestic programmes.”

Hashim added that they were preparing their calendar for 2008 and it would be finalised by the competitions committee next month.

Both the national senior and junior teams have full programmes next year.

The seniors are preparing for the Olympic qualifiers, which will be played in Japan from April 5-13. They have several matches lined up ahead of the tournament.

They have seven matches against the Queensland state team in a three-week stint in Brisbane next month. In March, there will be five Test matches against China in March. There is also a proposal for the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament to be held before June.

The juniors will start their new programme with an eight-nation tournament in Bukit Jalil from Jan 17-27. They will then go on a few tours ahead of their participation in the Junior Asia Cup in September.

Players in the team will also be involved in the Malaysia Junior Hockey League (MJHL), which is expected to start in February, and also Sukma (Malaysia Games) in June.

Malaysia are co-hosting the 2009 Junior World Cup Finals together with Singapore.