THE Malaysian men will arrive a day before the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and fear no teams — except for Covid-19.
That is the situation after the Malaysian women's team were forced out of the recent ACT in Donghae, South Korea, after several of their players tested positive for Covid-19.
Malaysia coach Arul Selvaraj said: "We head for Dhaka on Sunday, and will have one day to get ready for the ACT, because flights were difficult to arrange.
"But that does not worry me at all because Bangladesh is just a few hours away from Malaysia. The weather is also not too bad and acclimatisation can be done in a short period.
"What I am worried about is Covid-19, and even though all precautions have been, and will be taken by the Malaysian contingent, we hope to steer clear of any infections and have a good tournament."
Malaysia will be up against India, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea and Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Hosts Bangladesh have decided to play Malaysia in the curtain raiser on Dec 14.
"We had played many matches on our recent Britain tour, and are not actually worried about playing more matches when we arrive in Dhaka.
"I believe India are the team to beat in this tournament, while we have very little knowledge about the composition of the South Korean and Pakistan teams as both have been dormant since the pandemic began.
"Japan have played in the Olympics and we know what to expect from them.
"However, I have a different approach than other coaches as I am more into preparing my own team than worrying about the strengths of other teams.
"Of course, we will look into how to defend penalty corners and other aspects to stop opponents. But I will concentrate more on building a family unit to give Malaysia a better chance of making progress in the tournament and improve our world rankings," said Arul.
Malaysia are ranked world No 10, while Spain are ninth and New Zealand eighth.
ACT FIXTURES — Dec 14: Bangladesh v Malaysia, South Korea v India, Japan v Pakistan.
Dec 15: India v Bangladesh, Malaysia v Pakistan, South Korea v Japan.
Dec 16: Rest day
Dec 17: India v Pakistan, Malaysia v Japan, Bangladesh v South Korea,
Dec 18: India v Malaysia, Japan v Bangladesh, Pakistan v South Korea.
Dec 19: India v Japan, South Korea v Malaysia, Pakistan v Bangladesh.