KUALA LUMPUR: The signs from the national junior and senior women's hockey teams this year are good as their futures look promising following some encouraging results in tournaments.
Despite not getting much exposure, they did better than their national junior and senior men's counterparts in competitions.
The junior girls made Malaysia proud by qualifying for the 2025 Junior World Cup (JWC) in Santiago, Chile after finishing fifth in the Junior Asia Cup in Muscat, Oman this month. Ten teams took part and the top five qualified for the JWC. India, China, South Korea and Japan finished top four.
The national women's senior team, ranked 23 in the world, have also been on the rise.
They upset world No. 15 South Korea (2-1) and gave world No. 11 Japan (lost 2-1) and world No. 6 China (lost 3-1) a run for their money in the Asian Champions Trophy in Bihar, India, last month.
Malaysia were seeded fifth in the Asian meet, but peformed beyond expectations to finish fourth.
Qualifying for the JWC is a boost for the national junior team, and it shows that Malaysia has good players and we should continue with our grassroot development programmes to unearth more talent.
The focus now should be on the girls' team to prepare well in every aspect of the game to put up a strong challenge in the JWC.
If China's women's hockey team can go on to become the Paris Olympics silver medallistx, there is no reason why our girls' team cannot achieve that.
The girls, under coach Lailin Abu Hassan, can further improve with a high level of training and by playing more quality matches.
The Young Tigresses will turn out for their respective clubs in the Malaysia Hockey League in January. And they will get to play some quality matches in this league against foreign and local teams.
Young Tigresses team manager Datuk Seri Saiyuti Samat said the girls need quality matches and they are planning to go for a playing tour abroad in preparation for the JWC.
This year, three national women's players featured in the Scottish league, and this has helped them improve, but more players should be based in Europe to learn the European style of play which has dominated international tournaments.
The good news is that 10 of the Young Tigresses are also in the national senior team, and they are set to lead Malaysia at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, where our target is to win gold and qualify for the 2028 Olympics.
The Speedy Tigresses, under coach Nasihin Nubli, however, need to improve all aspects of their game in about 20 months to put up a strong challenge in the Asian Games.
There is no short cut to success, and the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) needs to plan a strategic programme that can help both the junior and senior women's teams elevate their world rankings.
India has invested a lot of money in hockey, and that's why they are the Asian giants and won almost all the men's and women's junior and senior-level hockey titles.
Although the Young Tigers have also qualified for the 2025 Junior World Cup by finishing fourth in the Junior Asia Cup in Oman recently, there are many things still lacking in coach I. Vickneswaran's team.
The players, themselves, need to change their "tidak apa attitude" attitude, and play with the aim of winning every single match.
They need to learn from teams like India how they can be successful in tournaments and why Malaysia are still struggling to win matches.
The senior men's team, under coach Sarjit Singh, need to come up with a comprehensive plan to improve their fitness, scoring touch and penalty corner conversion rate.
They need to have a never-say-die attitude and get back their confidence after finishing sixth and last in the Asian Champions Trophy in Inner Mongolia, China, in September.
MHC hired the King of Drag flicks, Sohail Abbas, in October to help the national junior and senior teams improve their penalty corner conversion.
Sarjit has about eight months to improve his team to a level strong enough to win the Asia Cup in India in August and earn a ticket to the 2026 World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands.
It will be a tough ask for the Speedy Tigers in the Asia Cup, but nothing is impossible if you put your heart and soul to it.
Next year, all of Malaysia's four men and women's national teams will feature in important tournaments, and we hope they will deliver.