KUALA LUMPUR: National women's hockey coach Nasihin Nubli has warned his charges to perform at the Razak Cup on Nov 10-20, as it will be their only chance to prove themselves after a year of training.
The 30-plus national women's hockey team have been training mostly at home or online due to Covid-19.
"I would like to re-evaluate their progress, and what better way than to watch them play in the Razak Cup," said Nasihin.
"All the women's tournaments, including the Junior Asia Cup (JAC) and Asian Champions Trophy, have been scrapped for this year because of Covid-19.
"My players never got a chance to compete.
"They only started training and playing on the artificial pitch for the last three weeks.
"From what I saw, many are a little rusty tactically while their fitness is still good.
"I will release the national players back to their states early so that they can train for the Razak Cup with their teammates."
The Malaysian women were supposed to play in the JAC, a qualifier for the Junior World Cup. But it was scrapped by the Asian Hockey Federation, and a direct entry into the JWC was done based on rankings. From Asia, only India, South Korea and Japan qualified.
The Malaysian Hockey Confederation have decided not to hold the women's Junior Hockey League this year, and that was another loss in grassroots development.