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HOCKEY: MHL needs a makeover

HE Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) could be re-branded next year to attract more teams for the annual competition which is on the decline due to poor response.

Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) secretary Johari Aziz said a re-branding exercise will likely be done to make the league more attractive next year.

"The league has potential but we need to upgrade it. We could change the format or invite foreign teams to make it more exciting and competitive," said Johari after the MHL team managers' meeting at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

The league, which began in the late 1980s, used to attract a large participation but of late, teams have been staying away due to budget constraint.

In 2010, 16 teams played in the league but only 14 registered for the competition last season. The upcoming season, which starts on Saturday, has attracted only 13 clubs despite MHC's move to increase the prize money from RM350,000 to RM410,000 for the six-week competition which ends on Oct 10.

"There will be no automatic promotion and relegation in the two-tier league as lower-ranked teams are not good enough," Johari added.

"We will look at the standard of the top finishers in Division One before granting them a possible promotion into next season's Premier League. We, however, hope the increase of prize money will make the league competitive."

Only the top four teams in the Premier League, comprising defending champions KL Hockey Club (KLHC), Sapura, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Maybank, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) and Nur Insafi-PHA, will qualify for the TNB Cup (overall title), unlike previous seasons, where the top two in Division One completed the quarter-final field.

Sapura, Maybank and Nur Insafi have signed foreign players while the rest will depend on locals. Pakistan international Muhd Imran and South Korea's former Olympian Lee Jung Seon will play for Sapura while Shakeel Abbasi and Mohd Waqas (both Pakistanis) together with Kiwi Aiden Mitchell have signed with Maybank. Nur Insafi have yet to confirm their foreign signings.

As for Division One teams, comprising Armed Forces, Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS), Politeknik-KPT, Universiti Teknoloji Mara (UiTM), Johor HA, TNB-Thunderbolts and PST-Uniten-KPT, they will play in the newly-introduced President Cup. Johor HA have signed five Qatari internationals for their campaign.

MHC also made changes to the league's opening day fixture after admitting a mistake in drawing out the wrong teams for Saturday's Charity Shield match.

KLHC, last season's league and TNB Cup winners, were initially drawn to play TNB, the TNB Cup runners-up, but according to competition rules if a team win both titles, their opponents in the Charity Shield should be the league runners-up.

"We made a mistake. KLHC will now play last year's league runners-up Sapura," Johari said. By Ajitpal Singh

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