Malaysian Coach: A draw will be a good result Vs India

Malaysian coach Dharamaraj was realistic when he spoke about his team’s prospects against India in their last pool match scheduled for Tuesday.

Quoting the Malaysian team’s rank in both FIH and AHF, Dharma wants a descent performance against India which will satisfy him the most.

“Good performance against India is my first priority. If we will force the powerful Indian team to a draw, that will be satisfying”, said Dharama who took over the reins of Malaysian women’s hockey team a year ago.

When pointed out that Malaysia played very well against India last year in the Singapore Champions Trophy, he was again seen keeping his feet on the ground.

“Yes I agree we did well. We lost by just two goal margin. But however I lost two leading players in the team since then”.

“Midfielder Hashiza Ali is on family way. Her presence is ruled out. She has played for Malaysia almost 15 years, and it will take years and years to find a replacement for her”.

“Secondly, Fadzik Sylvester. She was a terrific flicker and a solid player. She has recently joined Fire Brigade, undergoing traineeship. Her employer wont release her for the tournament. Yes, there was hue and cry in the social media etc, but at the end of the day she is not with the team”.

“Their absence affect the team, but as a coach I look forward to find replacement and go further.”

“My aim here is to finish second in the pool, and thus able to meet either Kazakhstan or Thailand in the quarterfinal. Let’s see how things work out here”.

In fact India did a favour to Malaysia with a surprising 4-1 win over China on day 2. This has pushed China to third position in the points table. With a win over Singapore, it has +7 goal difference, while with same three points China’s goal difference is minus 2.

Its worthwhile here to mention that on the opening day Malaysia lost to China 5-4 after leading 4-3 till last two minutes.

Dharma is one of the leading contemporary coaches in Malaysia. Under his coaching, Malaysian boys reached the Junior World Cup in Delhi four years ago.