KUALA LUMPUR: It's like Malaysia's national men's football team getting to play Brazil, Argentina, Germany or Italy. Of course that will never happen, not with Harimau Malaya's current standard.
But their cousins, the Speedy Tigers, will have the rare opportunity of playing the world champions, the Olympic champions and world No. 1 ranked team in friendly matches in Europe next month.
World No. 12 Malaysia will play reigning Olympic champions Belgium on July 1, 3 and 5, against world champions Germany on July 7 and 9, and against world No. 1 Netherlands on July 12.
Fortunately for the Malaysian players, these best-of-the-best teams feel that the Speedy Tigers are worth their time as they look for practice matches ahead of the Paris Olympics.
The Speedy Tigers may bite off more than they can chew, but they certainly won't be complaining in view of the opponents' quality.
National head coach Sarjit Singh said: "We will have the privilege to play quality matches against these top teams in the world.
"All these teams will be playing in the Olympics and they will be parading their best players."
The 30 players currently in national training will give their right arm to go for the European-playing tour, but only 20 will get to go.
Sarjit said the Speedy Tigers need to play at least 45 international matches to get up to speed with the world's top teams.
So far, the national team have played 11 international matches, and struggled in the Sultan Azlan Shah (SAS) Cup in Ipoh and Nations Cup in Poland this year.In the SAS Cup, Malaysia finished fourth among six teams, and in the Nations Cup, a disappointing seventh among nine teams
"The team need to play as many as 45 international matches before they mature to become a solid team," said Sarjit.
The Speedy Tigers are preparing for the Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia from Sept 8-17.