Hockey squad had to sacrifice Chinese New Year holidays

SQUAD national senior men's hockey will go down in three series of the national team in a friendly against Ireland begins today at the National Hockey Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.

Series test match was held to provide an opportunity for some veteran players and young players showed their improvement.

After several months of head coach Paul Revington took over the national team, a series of tests aimed to increase momentum and team performance previously posted results, starting at Hockey Champions Challenge 1 in Argentina last year and the Asian Champions Trophy.

Some senior players who 'dropped while' before, back listed for a test match this time as Mohd. Amin Abd. Rahim, Chua Boon Huat, Jivan Mohan and Ismail Abu.

In addition, experienced veteran and country, Chua Boon Huat had to forget for the Chinese New Year which is celebrated today as had a greater responsibility to bring honor to the country.

"The match was an important test for the coaching ranks give international exposure for the players as well as to correct any shortcomings.

"We're not picking goalkeeper S. Kumar and striker Faizal Shaari who was playing in League Hockey India while Nabil Fiqri, Izwan Firdaus and Hafifi Hafifiz still Baljit Singh was injured while still on vacation for new married," said team manager George Koshy .

According to Koshy, was not listed this time were M. Soul, Mohd. Faeez Noor Ibrahim, Mohd. Syamim Yusof and Mohd. Sallehin Ghani.

"In addition, the coaches would like to use this test match to test new players who are not listed to Argentina and Doha before.

"After the third action, we still have two test matches against New Zealand before the coach will announce a full list of the challenge in next year's Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup next month," said Koshy.

In the meantime, the national team will face two major championships this year the World Hockey League semi-final in Johor Bahru and the Asia Cup in Ipoh which both offer tickets to the 2014 World Cup finals.

The squad list:

Amir Farid, Azlan Misron, Chua Boon Huat, Faiz Helmi, Ismail Abu, Jivan Mohan, Kairulnizam Ibrahim, Roslan Jamaluddin (goalkeeper), Hazrul Faiz, Sukri Mutalib, Izad Hakimi, Fitri Saari, Shahrun Nabil (captain), Amin Rahim, Azammi Adabi, Ramadan Rosli, Amerullah Aziz, Marhan Jalil, Razie Rahim, Norhizzat Sumantri, Tengku Ahmad Tajudin.