MHF scrap plan for friendly meet in Johor Baru

The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) have discarded the plan to stage a four-nation hockey tournament in Johor Baru to test facilities for the Junior World Cup Finals, which they will co-host with Singapore in June.

The MHF deputy president, Nur Azmi Ahmed, said that they were cancelling the tournament scheduled for March for financial reasons.

“It is going to cost us a lot of money to bring teams here and at the end of it, they will benefit at our expense,” he said.

“Our team will not be short on training at the venue because we plan to move their base there in March.

“Instead of spending money on a four-nation tournament, we can get our team to go on an European tour for some quality practice matches.”

The four-nation tournament with matches also played in Singapore was proposed by the previous MHF council after a meeting with the co-hosts. Singapore are now likely to stage a “trial run” on their own.

Azmi added that the stadium in Taman Daya in Johor Baru should be fully ready by March.

“We are willing to accommodate foreign teams to come to Johor Baru for training or Test matches. For us, the main thing is cost and we need to be prudent about it,” he said.

The Junior World Cup Finals from June 7-21 involve 20 teams and Malaysia and Singapore will each host two groups of the preliminary rounds. The semi-finals and final will be played in Johor Baru.

Meanwhile, Azmi said that they would be taking 26 players to Sydney for several friendly matches and also the four-nation Australian Youth Olympic Festival tournament scheduled for Jan 14-18.

On their return from Australia, the team will have a one-month commando-style training stint in Lumut.