Malaysia look to cement Asiad gameplan

Chennai: In August 2020, A Arul Selvaraj left behind his well-entrenched family life in Dublin to coach the Malaysian men’s hockey team. The former Malaysia international made the sacrifice of living away from his wife and children with a singular vision of taking the side to the Olympics. A daunting task, given that the 10th-ranked team has not qualified for the quadrennial event ever since the 2000 Sydney edition.
“It’s tough to get in when you have not competed in five Olympic cycles.It gets tougher and once you start going farther you get fewer quality matches to play, which is the key in international hockey,” the coach tells TOI. But Arul, who arrived in the city along with his team on Saturday for the Asian Champions Trophy, is upbeat about his chances with the group of players he has put together and the culture inculcated.
“Over the last three years, we’ve created a strong team and the mindset has changed in wanting to win matches and push themselves harder. Many senior players have learnt how to train on their own without coaches’ supervision. That gets me excited as once you put your mind, heart and soul into something, you just keep going.” An Asian Games gold medal is the ticket to that elusive Olympics berth, and the Asian Champions Trophy is the ideal testing ground in the lead-up to the event.
“We will use this tournament as our last preparation before the Asian Games. We are trying out new things and will see how much they work. At the same time, we will also get to analyse and study our opponents,” Arul says.
The core of his team comprises 6-7 experienced players, but complementing them are a bunch of talented youngsters. The coach adds: “It’s a very young team. We’ve got some very exciting young guys who are fast, fit and strong. I just want to make sure that we go back from this tournament injury-free, because post this tournament we only have about five weeks to prepare for the Games.”
Does that mean they will be wary of going all out in attack, and perhaps even hiding some of the tricks up their sleeve reserved for Hangzhou? “It’s quite difficult for a coach to hold the players back because we all know once the heat is on, the players just want to go for it, because that’s how we train them. But in terms of the set plays and the team tactics with respect to penalty corners and penalty corner defence, that’s where we can try to hold back some options or vary how much we use them,” he says.
The coach is no stranger to Tamil Nadu. His father was born and brought up in Kumbakonam and mother, too, has a south Indian origin. Arul came to Chennai in 1997 when he represented Malaysia in an international tournament here. He still visits Kumbakonam regularly to meet relatives, and his deep understanding of conditions here could come in handy during the tournament.
Though he believes that hosts India are the highest-ranked and most fancied team to win the trophy, Arul is wary of the challenge that every other team could pose on a given day.
“I’m sure that all the teams have got their best players here. You can never, ever underestimate Pakistan. Korea are always tough to beat because they are fighters. And of course, they have Jang (Jonghyun) who is still strong in his penalty corner offensive. China don’t really take part in many events, but as they are hosting the Asian Games, I’m sure they will also want to do well here.”