Well two contrasting stories within 24 hours, both from reputable journalist. What to believe I shall leave to the readers to judge. Why this happens I have no idea.
This is from The Star ( online on Sunday night)
KUALA LUMPUR: The Premier Division of the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) will be completed in six weeks.
It will start in late August and ends on Sept 25.
“We need to complete the fixtures by Sept 25 as the national men and women’s players (development and senior teams) will be competing in the Australian National League (which starts on Sept 29),” said George Koshy, the competitions committee chairman of the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC).
The Division One and women’s league will start earlier. The two leagues will begin one week after the completion of the Sukma (Malaysia Games) in Sarawak from July 22-31.
George said they hoped to have eight teams in the Premier Division this season.
In the past few years, only six teams – Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC), Terengganu, Sapura, Maybank, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and Tenaga Nasional – took part.
“We hope that the two Division One finalists – TNB Thunderbolt and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) – last year will agree to play in the Premier Division.
“Right now, only Nur Insafi, who had previously played in the top flight, have agreed to move up. We will make a decision on this once we have received all the entries,” said George.
A total of 19 men’s teams – six in the Premier Division and 13 in Division One – competed last year. The inaugural women’s league attracted nine sides.
And this appeared in The Sunday Times
THE Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) Competitions Committee still needs 10 more days to decide if the planned Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) would be held smack in the middle of the Olympics, or changed to a later date.
In an earlier calender drawn up by the Competitions Committee, the MHL is slated to be held in August, but teams are crying fault, as they will not be able to secure foreign players form the top-twelve countries in the world who would be playing in Rio de Janeiro.
The MHL teams would only be able to sign second stringers, and players from countries which did not qualify for the Olympics.
"The Competitions Committee discussed about the MHL issue, and said they needed at least 10 days more to decide either to stick with August, or find an alternative date for it," said MHC CEO K. Logan Raj.
The meeting also decided that Division Two teams also can hire foreign players, if they want.
However, from the traditional MHL foreign list, only Pakistan, South Korea and Japan did not qualify for the Olympics and their players would be available for the MHL.
