MAYBANK, pioneers in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL), will have an infusion of five national juniors to supplement their ageing former internationals.

And coach S. Velappan believes they will make an impact on the MHL which starts on Friday. Division One will have six teams, while Division Two will have nine.

"We will be banking on the national juniors to click well with our seniors, and our target is to be among the top-three in the League as well as in the TNB Cup," said Velappan.

The five national juniors are from a pool of players released to play for clubs after coach K. Rajan selected his 22-man squad. Maybank have been training at the Seremban II Stadium and have also named it as their home turf.

"We have been calling Kuala Lumpur HA and Tun Razak Stadiums as our homes for many years, but found that we never had 'home ground' advantage.
"With the pitch in Seremban II, we can finally call it our home as my players are really comfortable with it after clocking in many training hours there," said Velappan.

K. Gobinathan, Chairil Anwar, Suhaimi Ibrahim, goalkeeper Paul Lopez and Suhairi Saidi are some of the players who have much experience in the MHL.

Maybank will open accounts against Sapura, and Velappan believes Ernst & Young, with 12 national players, will again be the team to beat this season. -- JUGJET SINGH