Clubs agree to release National Juniors for ACC tourney

The National Juniors will get the services of all their top players in the Asian Champion Clubs (ACC) tournament, which begins on Thursday at the KL Hockey Stadium.

The tournament involves teams from Malaysia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Singapore and Thailand and the Juniors are featuring in it as a guest side. Ernst and Young are the Malaysian club in the tournament.

The Juniors are also playing in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) and seven of their key players are with other teams in the competition.

MHF deputy president, Nur Azmi Ahmad, said yesterday that the three clubs with national junior players had agreed to release them to play in the ACC tournament.

“We have also decided to postpone four matches this weekend to allow the Juniors and Ernst and Young to compete in the ACC,” he said.

Maybank has five national juniors in their ranks while Sapura and Tenaga Nasional have one player each.

The Maybank players are Hang Edzharsyah Hang Tuah, Shaheeb Shah Halim Shah, Mohamed Syafiq Mohamed Zain, Mohamed Azammi Adabi and Abdul Halim Adnan.

Tenaga have Mohamed Fitri Abu Bakar in their ranks while Mohamed Faisal Kamaruddin don Sapura colours in the MHL.

Ernst and Young and the Juniors are in Group A with the Thai Royal Air Force. In Group B are Pakistan’s Olympian Village Club, Singapore Recreation Club and Adijon of Uzbekistan.

The juniors have 30 players in their training squad. Only 18 players will be picked for the ACC tournament.

Juniors coach K. Rajan said the ACC tournament was a bonus for them.

“Our plan is to trim the training squad to 22 after the MHL and then go to Australia for a tournament and playing tour in January. I’m glad that the other teams have agreed to release their juniors players to play in the ACC,” he said.

The Juniors will take part in the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, a tournament in Sydney involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and England, from Jan 13-18. After the tournament they will go on a nine-match tour of Sydney and Brisbane.