Rajan is the fourth coach to take charge of national junior team
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) have named K. Rajan as the coach of the national junior team.
The decision was made at the MHF executive council meeting on Saturday.
Rajan was the caretaker coach for the last three weeks following the resignation of chief coach V. Muralidharan.
Rajan is the fourth coach to take over the team since the juniors’ programme started in 2006.
Sarjit Singh was the initial coach but was elevated to the senior team the following year and the task fell on his assistant Tai Beng Hai.
A year later Beng Hai quit amid criticisms of the team’s poor performances and Muralidharan was appointed in December last year. He lasted seven months and quit after the Juniors Asia Cup in Indian last month.
Rajan, who is from Kuala Lumpur, was assistant to Muralidharan was then ask to assume control for the Razak Cup two weeks ago.
MHF secretary Hashim Mohamed Yusof said that Rajan has submitted his programme to the coaching committee and it will be studied before approval is given.
“The coaching committee will basically look at the programme to see if it can be improved. The team are running short of time and we need to ensure the training programme will speed things up,” said Hashim.
Hashim said they have placed several coaches on attachment with the team and will pick one of them to be Rajan’s assistant in a month’s time. Those on attachment are Bob Rajendran (Penang), Nasir Mydin (Armed Forces) and Manjit Singh (Perak).
Malaysia will be co-hosting the Junior World Cup next year with Singapore.
Johor Baru will be host city on the Malaysian side.
Meanwhile, The MHF have fixed Nov 1 as the date for the Biennial General Meeting (BGM). Hashim confirmed that this would be an election year for the office bearers.
“All the main positions will be up for grabs. We will inform the states of the nomination process and the datelines soon,” he added.