Malaysian Hockey Poised for a ‘New Beginning’ Under Coach Sarjit Singh

Malaysian hockey have been striving to pick up the pieces after their abortive attempt at making it to the 2024 Olympics at the qualifying event at Muscat. The Speedy Tigers would hope to mark a ‘new beginning’ under two-time Olympian and former national team captain Sarjit Singh as chief coach. Sarjit, who had donned the national jersey at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1992 Barcelona Olympics, would have his task cut out, taking over from Arun Selvaraj earlier this year.

The former Malaysian centre-half, who earlier had a coaching stint with the national team, would be hoping for a ‘far improved performance’ after his team’s pretty disappointing performances at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, where they had finished 4th and at the FIH Nations Cup at Gniezno, Poland, where they had finished 7th among 9 teams.

At the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Malaysia posted three wins – prevailing over New Zealand 6-4, Canada 6-2, and Korea 1-0. They had lost to Pakistan 4-5, Japan 1-2, and New Zealand 3-4 (they met again in the 3-4th place tie). Surely, the inability to achieve a podium finish in front of their home crowd was disappointing. At the FIH Nations Cup, Malaysia were held to a 4-4 draw by Pakistan, they lost 1-3 and 3-4 to France and Korea, respectively – the Speedy Tigers pocketed two wins – 4-2 against Canada and 5-4 against Austria.

These two tournaments would be a tad unfair to assess Sarjit as Malaysia coach, but these tourneys surely would have given him a fair insight into how he wants to drive this team forward. The Asian Champions Trophy at Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia, would be one more opportunity to revive the fortunes of the Speedy Tigers and inculcate a ‘winning mindset’ so that the team can be regularly part of big-ticket tournaments like the World Cup, Olympics, or even the Pro League – events where they can only get better rubbing shoulders with the world’s top teams. At the Asian level, Malaysia can hope to meet a quality side like India and Korea and Japan to some extent but nothing much, in terms of competitiveness – it is about featuring in top-flight hockey events that would propel Malaysian hockey to new heights.

The 62-year-old, who has made more than 200 international appearances for Malaysia, can leverage the coming months and next year, to build a robust unit that is capable of delivering at the 2026 World Cup as well as the 2026 Asian Games – they must be at their best for these tourneys as they know that winning the Asiad gold would hand them an automatic qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Malaysia’s last Olympic appearance was twenty-four back at Sydney (2000 edition), where Sarjit captained the side – their best Olympic performance was a 8th place-finish at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Speedy Tigers’ best showing at the World Cup was a fourth-place finish at the 1975 edition in their backyard when they lost to India in extra time.