The REVIVED Tun Razak Cup, once the nations premier hockey tournament gets underway at the MPMBB Hockey Stadium in Bukit Serindit, Malacca today.
From being a major carnival style tournament in the 60s till last year, the REVIVED Tun Razak Cup is now reduced to a five competitive day tournament, with 16 teams participating.
Reduced to merely a side show from the much talked about REVIVAL of the nations oldest hockey tournament, there will be two areas of key interest in the tournament this year.
Firstly national coach Tai Beng Hai is expected to do a review on his team, this the national players will come under close scrutiny.
Next is the performances of the players from the Project 2013 squad will come under the microscope as they only returned from their European Tour on Thursday, this hardly giving the players any chance to rest before heading for Malacca and seeing action barely 48 hours after touching down at KLIA.
The Project players hardly have had much rest as they have been in action right from November last year when they started preparing for the MHL for the respective clubs and then carried on with the MJHL in late March that ended in May.
From then on the Project players went on a playing tour of Australia/ New Zealand before playing for their states in the National Under 21 Tournament in Johor.
A day after the National Under 21, the players either played in the AHF Under 18 Tournament in Singapore or were in the team that participated in the 4 Nation Invitational Tournament in Moscow.
Another round of duty for the states in the Razak Cup Qualifiers in early July was followed by a three country European Tour where they played with the junior squads of Germany, Holland and England.
And now they will be pushed to the limit by state coaches in the Razak Cup. And one can only keep their fingers crossed and pray that the players come out of this REVIVED Razak Cip without picking any serious injuries.
Coming back to the REVIVED Razak Cup, this blog will attempt to provide updated match reports and results as they happen in Malacca.
Though the blogger will be in Malacca for the initial two days, we will not be able to cover matches on Tuesday.
So if hockey lovers want to get updates of the REVIVED Razak Cup, make this your first stop in the mornings and last page you visit at night before going to bed as we strive to provide your coverage, unrivaled by any other site.
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