2017 a crucial year for MHC to qualify for 2018 World Cup

After investing in training and gaining exposure through a series of playing tours and high level tournaments in 2016, this year will be on proving the rationale of the investment by delivering results.

MHC Deputy President Prof Dr S. Shamala strongly believes both men's and women's squads would be able to reach the HWL semifinals as well as clean sweep all four SEA Games golds at stake in the SEA Games.

"I believe 2017 will be a good year for MHC after a holistic revamp. It is time to prove the worth of investment, especially after playing tours and matches in Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

"For the SEA Games, we need to win all the four gold medals at stake to show that we are now in a different league, especially as the host," she said when contacted by Bernama.

The women's squad will be first to start the season as Malaysia will be hosting the Round 2 of the women's HWL from Jan 14-22, where they have to face challenges from Ireland, Italy, Fiji, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Thailand and Wales to reach the semifinals round.

"This year, the women's team need to go extra mile and perform to show they are at different height after so many investments made in 2016. I think there wouldn't be any problem in advancing to the HWL semifinals," she said.

Only the top three finishers from Round 2 in Kuala Lumpur will advance to the semifinals that will feature another six teams from another 2 tournaments to be held in Spain and Canada.

The semifinal stage is organised as two editions, namely in Belgium from June 21 to July 2 and South Africa from July 8 to 23 this year, where only top the 10 or 11 teams from the semifinal round, together with host and five continental champions will qualify to the 2018 World Cup.

Last year, Muhammad Dharma Raj Abdullah's squad managed to finish the Australian Hockey League in seventh place as well as securing fourth place in the Asian Women's Hockey Champions Trophy.

Meanwhile, the men's squad will start their year with the HWL Round 2 against host Trinidad and Tobago, Japan, Russia, Barbados, Chile, Switzerland and United States using the same format as the women's.

"The men's squad also did well in 2016 by securing the Asian Champions Trophy bronze medal, fourth place in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and sixth place in the Australian Hockey League. They surely will pass through Round 2," she said.

Shamala said the investment made in grassroots programmes, especially the 1Mas Hockey Development Programme, had started to harvest fruits since many young and promising players started to make their way into domestic leagues.