An opening match against one of the most improved teams in the world followed by a match against the reigning world champions.
That is what the Malaysian team will face in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup that will be held from the 5-15 May at the Azlan Shah Stadium.
In the fixtures released by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation, the seven teams that have confirmed participation are Australia, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, South Korea, New Zealand and hosts Malaysia.
Going by rankings, Malaysia is the lowest ranked team and thus will find it difficult to repeat the performance of 2009 where they emerged runners-up to India and last year where they were in the running for place in the final until the final round of matches in the league stage.
Malaysia will play Great Britain on the first day and that will be followed by a match against Australia.
And after two days of rest, Malaysia will take on India, who are the joint defending champions with South Korea.
Another rest day and Malaysia will face New Zealand and Korea. Following another break Malaysia will finish of their match against Pakistan, in a repeat of the Asian Games final.
"It will be a tough tournament and we will have one month to prepare the team as the MHL ends in the middle of March", said national coach Stephen van Huizen.
"From the looks of things we need to play some competitive matches in April to better prepare. But that will be subject to MHF being able to secure teams to play against.
" Maybe there will be teams that would want to come early and play some matches."
FIXTURES:
May 5
1605 New Zealand v Pakistan
1805 Korea v India
2005 Great Britain v Malaysia.
May 6
1605 Korea v Pakistan
1805 Great Britain v India
2005 Australia v Malaysia
May 8
1605 Australia v India
1805 Great Britain v Pakistan
2005 Korea v New Zealand
May 9
1605 Australia v Pakistan
1805 Great Britain v New Zealand
2005 India v Malaysia.
May 11
1605 New Zealand v Malaysia
1805 Australia v Korea
2005 Pakistan v India
May 12
1605 Australia v Great Britain
1805 New Zealand v India
2005 Korea v Malaysia
May 14
1605 Great Britain v Korea
1805 Pakistan v Malaysia
2005 Australia v New Zealand
May 15
1535 Fifth-Sixth
1805 Third-Fourth
2035 Final.
