Malaysians keen on switching to European style

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 9. Malaysian hockey coach and Olympian Yahya Atan, is striving for a shift from the Asian style to the European. The focus is on formations, with stress on the mid and back field. The physique of players from the continent sees them lose possession of the ball quickly in the front-line and called for better marking of opponents.

The 1984 Los Angeles Games veteran watched his boys keenly during Sunday's roughly two hour workout on the eve of the first India- Malaysia junior hockey match. The green-topped astro- turf at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) hockey stadium was bathed in the blazing evening sun as his boys sweated it out in its scorching glare.

The weather conditions were not much different but it was a little dry here in Hyderabad, he said. The playing surface was a little bumpy, he felt. He wouldn't single out any individual to watch out for even as he expressed the hope that the team would perform well, rather than relying on solo displays.

Malaysia lost to Australia in the final of the five- nation tournament held recently in Kuala Lumpur. Incidentally, India lost to Malaysia and had to settle for the third place.

Indian coach Charles Cornelius felt his boys had practised well. The forward-line trio of Deepak Thakur, Arjun Hallappa and Bipin Fernandez would be the mainstay of the country's campaign, he said.

Their international experience would shape much of the home team's challenge.

India's assistant coach Syed Mustafa said his wards would go all out for a win. They had prepared well and he was confident they would come good when it mattered.

The Malaysians arrived around midnight on Saturday from Kuala Lumpur.

The action gets under way on Monday at 3 p.m.

The teams:

Malaysia: Shaiful Azhar, Mohd. Amin, Boonhuat (captain), Norhanafi, Redzuan, Prabhakaran, Azlan, Maswardi, Norazlan, Mohd. Fairus, Mohd. Tajol Rofli, Shankar, Zahrin, Logan Raj, Jiwa, Mohd. Firdaus, Vinothan, Jivan. Manager: Zulkisli Abbas. Coach: Yahya Atan.

India: Millan Gowda, Amarjit Singh, Thomba Singh, Shamshuz Zuha, Vivek Gupta, Bipin Thimmaiah, Jagdish Singh, Arjun Hallappa, Deepak Thakur, Bipin Fernandez, Sumesh Kantha, Bfokrolo, Muthu Selvan, Rajashekar, Sonu, Dung Dung, Sarat Babu, M. Shekar Babu. Coach: Charles Cornelius. Asst. Coach: Syed Mustafa. Trainer: Narender Pal Singh. Manager: K. Arjun.

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