23 or 24 Foreign Players in MHL

The Malaysian Hockey League gets underway next month but the star players of world Hockey will not descend on our shores.

Held parallel to the Rio Olympics, the MHL received a lukewarm participation of foreign players, mostly those from countries that did not make Rio or players that could not find a place in the final squad.

A total of 24 players have signed up for five teams in the Premier Division while Nur Insafi is the only Division One outfit to register foreign players.

Earlier reports had indicated that Tenaga Nasional Berhad would field foreigners for the first time in the MHL since its inception in 1987.

That was not the case as TNB will remain the only team without foreign players in the Premier Division.

Contrary to the list sent out by the MHC that listed 23 foreign players, the status of Maybank's third foreign  player needs clarification from the parent body.

Checks with Maybank revealed that they have registered  Rezaul Karim a defender from the Bangladesh National Team, Ignacio Sallas  who is a forward and Valeriano Juan , a midfielder , both from Argentina and playing in the Dutch League.

UniKL who lost two key youngster, Haziq Shamsul and Meor Mohammad have registered a full complement of six foreign players.

They are James Carr from Ireland who plays as a goalkeeper. He was dropped from the Irish Olympic team.

The others are, Luke Madeleya a defender drag flicker from Ireland, Daragh Walsh - Irelannd who plays in midfield and forward, Patrick - German a defender / midfielder who is PC pusher and was in the team last year and Mohammad Tousiq from Pakistan who is a penalty corner drag flicker and an accomplished defender. The sixth is from Australia Adrian Coster.

KL Hockey Club too registered six foreign players and took further advantage of signing naturalised Kevin Lim who is from Germany and played for Malaysia in 2014.

KLHC signed up three Pakistanis, Ali Shan, Abdul Haseem Khan and Umar Bhutta, Korean Nam Hyun Woo, Holland's Jelte Van Gennip and Argentina's Pedro  Lopez Alonso.

Sapura have three in their list with notable signings Gurbaj Singh from India and Phillip Burrows from New Zealand. The third is Oscar William Wookey.

Defending  champions Terengganu Hockey Team also registered six foreign players - Pakistan's Muhammad Irfan, Koreans Kim Jung Hoo,  Jang Jong Hyun, Kim Khoon as well two Argentines in Pablo Javier and Nicholas Enrique.

As for Nur Insafi, the northern based team have registered Abdul Asim khan, Mohamed Imran and Kashif Ali, all from Pakistan.

With the decision to hold the MHL from January to March for the next four years, teams will have to compete with the lucrative Hockey India League to secure the services of the very best players, something beyond the financial capability of most clubs, thus rendering the MHL as a mediocre tournament no thanks to decisions made in the boardroom without looking at the global picture.