The Junior Hockey League (JHL) will be tweaked for it to produce a pool of talented players for the 2023 Junior World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) have planned for changes to the format of the JHL, which will be held in November.
These include having only Under-19 goalkeepers, five 21-year-old players, while the rest of the outfield players must be Under-21.
MHC Competitions Committee chairman Datuk Seri Dr Anil Jeet Singh said yesterday: "We are doing this because we want to increase the pool of players for the national junior team, especially in the goalkeeping department.
"Limiting the number of players who are 21, will allow more youngsters to come up.
"These measures are implemented because we want to prepare for the 2023 World Cup. With a stronger pool, the coaches would have better choices. These requirements were decided after discussing with the coaches of the national teams and also the competitions committee."
The JHL will be held from Nov 26 to Jan 2 next year. The competition is separated into two divisions, with the first division having 10 teams while the second division will be divided based on the number of entries received. The women's competition will not be held this year.
The MHC also confirmed that the Razak Cup will be held under a carnival format from Nov 10 to Nov 20, similar to the last edition.