KUALA LUMPUR: Though the Kuala Lumpur Junior World Cup (JWC) is not ever, Malaysia, who failed to achieve their target of reaching the quarter-finals, should start planning immediately for the 2025 edition.
There is no time to waste in preparing the national junior hockey squad if Malaysia want to go far in the next JWC.
Olympian and former World Cupper, Jiwa Mohan, said if they don't prepare now, it will be too late to have a strong team for the 2025 JWC.
In the KL edition, the Young Tigers found out, at the cost of an early exit, that they are still way behind the traditional big teams.
While Malaysia could outplay a mediocre Chile 7-1, they were soundly beaten 4-0 by defending champions Argentina and 5-2 by Australia.
Jiwa said while Malaysia do have many talented players, their skills and experience need to be enhanced to match the top teams in the world.
Jiwa, who played in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2002 KL World Cup, runs three Jiwa Mohan Hockey Academies in KL, Klang and Penang, involving more than 400 juniors.
He said: "We also need to expose our juniors to the foreign leagues in Europe from the age of 18, so that they can get high level quality matches.
"Look at France. Twenty years ago they were no match for Malaysia and the European teams. But today France are a force.
"France have a good development programme and their players are exposed to high-level matches in Europe.
And France beat Germany in the the JWC."
Jiwa added that the juniors also need top-notch mental trainers to strengthen them mentally.
"We hired a lot of experts for the JWC and the same set of experts must start working with the juniors from now to prepare a formidable side to qualify for the 2025 JWC."
Former national captain Nor Saiful Zaini said a sound national junior development programme is vital to producing quality players.
"Our junior development programme needs to be changed for betterment as the juniors will one day play for the national senior team.
"Our current national juniors could not match teams from Argentina and Australia because they lack power in skill, ball possession, height and decision-making.
"They also lack power in dribbling and tackling opponents. They played to their own standards but their opponents are far superior in all departments.
"The national juniors also lack playing exposure against European teams who play quality hockey," said Olympian Saiful.