Defender Madzli to shoulder a heavy burden in qualifiers

Defender Mohamed Madzli Ikmar (pic) will have to shoulder a heavy burden for the national hockey team in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Japan from April 5-13.

The 29-year-old, who is in his 10th year with the team, has been given the task to hold up the defence, which is consider as the weakest link in the team.

“I will play my heart out to ensure that we are equal to the task. There is no doubt that the defence have been seen as the team's weakest department. But I think development in recent months have made it much stronger,” said Madzli.

“There is greater confidence among the players and we are now very much an attack-minded side. Players are ready to take risks and the defenders are able to come up with an attacking move. I feel that we will not be outclassed in any way in the qualifying tournament.”

Mazli takes the role of central defender and coach Sarjit Singh is still working on a partner for him. The latest to join up is Jiwa Mohan, who has been coaxed out of retirement to play in only the qualifying tournament.

“It is the playing system that we need to understand. It will be the coach’s choice on who will partner me. I am comfortable with any of the other defenders because they are familiar to me. But we need some time to forge a better understanding,” he said.

Madzli was one of the senior players axed from the national team after the disastrous outing at the 2006 Doha Asiad. But he earned a recall six months later and has since then featured in the Asia Cup, Olympic test event in Beijing and the Champions Trophy.

He made his national team debut in 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and among his major international outings were World Cup (2002), Olympics (2004) and Commonwealth Games.The Olympic qualifying tournament in Japan offers one ticket to Beijing and Malaysia will be up against Germany, Poland, Japan, Switzerland and Italy.