Good Day to all my passionate readers,
As previously mentioned that I will write some facts and views for the upcoming 30th edition of Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2024.
The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup is an annual invitational international men's field hockey tournament held in Malaysia. It began in 1983 as a biennial contest. The tournament became an annual event after 1998, following its growth and popularity.
The 2024 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup will be the 30th edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the annual men's invitational international field hockey tournament hosted by Malaysia. The tournament will return after a one-year hiatus after it was postponed in 2023 due to the packed hockey calendar and couldn’t get sufficient good teams to participate and opted out to host Indoor International event last year. It will be held at the Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia from 4 to 11 May 2024. The tournament will consist of six teams.The competitive edge of SASC event has dropped over the years compared to those days due to unavailability of the best and renowned teams to be part of this event. Many commented that SASC was close or better in standard than level of annual FIH Champions Trophy but due to clashing in dates with FIH Pro League and late in calling for entry could be the key reasons for the best teams not to be part of this annual SASC events.
The hosts Malaysia are the
defending champions after winning their first title at the 2022 edition:
The following six teams will
participate in the years tournament and some facts:
Team Appearance Last Appearance Previous best performance
Canada 10th 2019 4th
(1995, 1999, 2019)
Japan 6th 2022 4th
(2022)
Malaysia 30th 2022 1st
(2022)
New Zealand 18th 2017 1st
(2012, 2015)
Pakistan 22nd 2022 1st
(1999, 2000, 2003)
South Korea 22nd 2022 1st
(1996, 2010, 2019)
Based on current world rankings –
it is in this sequence as stated below:
New Zealand No 10
S Korea No 11
Malaysia No 13
Pakistan No 15
Japan No 16
Canada No 19
- 4 Asian Teams with NZ from Oceania & Canada
from Pan AM. This quality of teams based on my view is not the best in the
world hockey as the best teams (Aus, Belgium, Ned, India, Eng, Spain, Germany,
Argentina, France, Ireland, are busy with their FIH Pro League and preparation
towards European Championship and Paris Olympic Games.
Out of six teams, only New
Zealand qualified to play in Paris Olympics Games and the rest 5 teams didn’t qualify
in January FIH qualifications.
Overall, the failed teams to
Olympics such as Korea, Canada, Malaysia undergoing massive changes in Coaching
structure and style of play with looking beyond this tournament. But as for
Pakistan & Japan, they started rebuilding since Tokyo Olympics and their
work started showing some promising, as Japan is heading for podium in 2026 Nagoya
Asian Games. Currently, Pakistan is undergoing some hiccups due to 2
federations infighting who is the sole governing body that manages hockey affairs
in Pakistan but believe their current team average age below 25 under Roelant
did show some positive impact at 2023 SOJC, 2023 Junior World Cup, 2023 Asian
Games and 2024 FIH Olympic qualifications. In years to come and this Pakistan
team will be ready for 2025 & 2026 hockey calendar especially the 2028 LA
Olympics cycle.
Back to us as the host, I believe
the previous Coaching structure has done some great progress and pushed some
changes but the results wasn’t on their side especially for not winning the promised
gold in 2023 Asian Games and qualifying to Paris Olympics.
This Malaysian Team in SASC2024,
should at least finish as medalist even though we are the defending Champions.
The team has a massive experience player and most players has many
International Caps who has played at high level of big events and also bringing the silver medalist
H5s players to the team indirectly brings more quality.
For sure the previous regime has
uplifted the conditioning and strength of team as so much work has been put
till January 2024 this year before the TNBMHL2024 and believe fitness would
never be an issue and for sure the new regime has imposed high quality training
schedules and the players are working very hard on & off the field to bring
success in the coming SASC24.
In terms of experience and fitness no excuses for this team to perform in front of the Ipoh ardent hockey fans and always without fail all Malaysian match it is fully packed and stand's behind the Malaysian team.
Anything finishing 4th and below will not indicate a
good start for this Malaysian team because the next important assignment after
SASC24 will be FIH Nation Cup where South Africa, Ireland and France will be
providing greater competitive and challenge.
Both these events will allow
Malaysia to improve our sliding world ranking and the Importance level for
SASC24 is at 2 & FIH Nation Cup importance will be 3.
Malaysian Schedule:
4th May vs Pakistan; 5th
May vs Canada; 7th May vs NZ; 8th May vs Japan & 10th
May vs Korea as all matches at 8.30pm – 11th May is the classification day.
The first 2 games against Pak
& Canada will determine where we finish and we cannot afford to lose both
this matches as the next 3 – NZ, Jpn, Korea will be tougher.
Wishing the Malaysian Men’s Hockey
Team, the very best in the SASC24 and go for the podium finish.
Godspeed.
Maninderjit Singh (Mike)
P/S – There were rumors' that I was offered to be the next CEO or General Manager and the word was circulating around that I didn’t accept that post, by the way, this rumor's are not true because in the first place there wasn’t any such offer for me to decide or decline. But was offered to be a member of MHC Coaching Committee but declined due to some reasons. Just to clear the air and doubts surrounding the hockey fraternity.
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