Sri Lankan Strikers off to Malaysia to gain international exposure
View(s):The Sri Lanka men’s hockey squad of 25 players will proceed to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, today to gain international match experience and attend a training session. The sessions will be held from February 19 and will end on February 23.
Expenses for the event will be borne by the Ministry of Sports. The Malaysian Hockey Federation will provide opposition in the form of four experienced teams.
Sri Lanka has qualified for the Hockey World League Round two which will be held from March 4 to 12 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Other teams who have qualified from Hockey World League Round One held in Singapore during April are: China as champions and Sri Lanka as the runners-up. This is the first time that Sri Lanka has qualified for the Hockey World League Round two contest.
In League One, Sri Lanka drubbed Myanmar 7-0; beat Singapore 2-1, overcame Kazakhstan 7-0, crushed Thailand 5-0 and thus qualified for the final with China.
After a tough fight China and Sri Lanka ended the final at 3-all and in the penalty strokes which followed China triumphed 4-2.
The teams that have qualified for Round 2 are: Group A – Oman, Fiji, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Group B – Sri Lanka, China, Egypt and Ghana.
Sri Lanka’s first match in Round One will be against Egypt on March 4. The second game will be against Ghana on March 5. Sri Lanka will clash with China on March 7.
From May last year Sri Lanka has been preparing for the competition. They took part in the Fifth Asian Hockey Federation Cup (AHF) Tournament in Hong Kong where they emerged runners-up with Bangladesh emerging as the champions. Since they have not had any match experience since then the Sports Ministry has arranged this tour to Malaysia. This is the first time that Sri Lanka was runners-up in an AHF tournament
There are 31 players in the hockey pool but only 29 players will proceed to Malaysia. After the tour the pool will be whittled down to 18.
Anuruddha Herath Bandara is the coach of the team said “We will be up against several new teams, whom we have not crossed sticks before such as Egypt and Ghana. As such we are unable to judge their strengths and weaknesses. But the Sri Lanka squad is fit and ready. The strongest team in our group is Bangladesh,” - SP