KUALA LUMPUR: How can a team be evaluated on their KPIs without any targets in place?
Following the disastrous showing at last month's Asian Champions Trophy (ACT), where the Speedy Tigers finished last, the men's junior squad and the women's national senior team are playing it safe by not setting any goals for their upcoming tournaments.
The national juniors will compete in the Sultan of Johor Cup (SoJC) later this month, while the women's team will play in the women's Asian Champions Trophy in Bihar, India, from Nov 11-20.
At the ACT, national men's coach Sarjit Singh had set a top-four finish target, but the team fell far short.
Yesterday, national junior coach I. Vickneswaran said he does not want to pressure his players by setting a target for the six-nation SoJC in Johor Baru from Oct 19-25.
Vickneswaran added that his players are still inexperienced, having only gathered for centralised training in May and are playing in their first international junior tournament.
Australia, New Zealand, Britain, India and Japan will join Malaysia in the SoJC. National women's coach Nasihin Nubli echoed a similar sentiment, saying no target has been set for the women's ACT.
"Let the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) set a target," said Nasihin, who has been coaching the team since 2020.
World No. 23 Malaysia will face the best teams in the continent at the women's ACT.
World No. 6 China, defending champions India (No. 9), Japan (No. 11), South Korea (No. 15) and Thailand (No. 29) make up the tournament.
For the record, China were silver medallists at this year's Paris Olympics.
In last year's edition, Nasihin's squad finished fifth after beating Thailand 1-0 in the classification match.