Malaysia open their campaign against Japan at the AHF Champions Trophy in Doha on Thursday afternoon at 3.00pm local time ( 8.00pm Malaysian time).
For those unaware, this is the second edition of the Asian version of the Champions Trophy and the teams participating in the week long tournament are India, Pakistan, Japan, China, Oman and Malaysia.
After a good outing in the Champions Challenge in Argentina, Malaysia will be hoping for a podium finish, having won the bronze in Ordos last year in September.
The official mouthpiece of the Malaysian Hockey Confederation lacks the know how to write articles, opting to lift them from a particular newspaper and even when they do have an article posted, it is littered with grammar errors.
Below is a question and answer between this blog and national coach Paul Revington, on his thoughts with regards to the team and players selected to play in the Hockey India League/
No part of this interview is to be reproduced with the permission of this blog.
Malaysian Hockey: Pakistan and India have made minimal changes to their teams from Melbourne while Malaysia changed half the team from Argentina. Your thoughts on this?
The official mouthpiece of the Malaysian Hockey Confederation lacks the know how to write articles, opting to lift them from a particular newspaper and even when they do have an article posted, it is littered with grammar errors.
Below is a question and answer between this blog and national coach Paul Revington, on his thoughts with regards to the team and players selected to play in the Hockey India League/
No part of this interview is to be reproduced with the permission of this blog.
Malaysian Hockey: Pakistan and India have made minimal changes to their teams from Melbourne while Malaysia changed half the team from Argentina. Your thoughts on this?
Revs: All three teams (and coaches) are at different
stages with regards to building teams. I don't look too much into what other teams
are doing when making team selections for Malaysia.
Malaysian Hockey: We finished with a bronze last year and I believe you are aiming towards that. How difficult of a task will that be?
Revs: I want to try and win every game - regardless of stage of process of team development.
Malaysian Hockey: We play Japan in the opening match and you saw them in
Argentina, your thoughts on the match and the Japanese?
Revs : The
Japanese are always a tough opponent and have a strong team work ethic.
They showed this again in Argentina.Malaysian Hockey: Putting aside the target, what are you hoping for from this team in Doha?
Revs : I want a further enhancement in elements of team play and I want another group of the squad who join us reaching the same level of play and game understanding as players reached quickly in Argentina.
Malaysian Hockey: Only S. Kumar and Faisal Saari were successful in the Hockey India League auction. Your thoughts on them playing and the fact that other players failed to be picked?
Revs : I am delighted for both Kumar and Faisal as they are terrific players. As the Malaysian Team improves world ranking and improve with regards to consistent performance and results - players will get consistently recognized in any HIL type event. This must be their goal.
