KUALA LUMPUR: The presence of six, top import players including the world’s best penalty corner specialist, Argentinian Gonzalo Peillat, is not a guarantee that Terengganu Hockey Team (THT) will win all the top honours at stake for the coming Malaysia Hockey League season.
In fact THT head coach, Sarjit Singh stressed that despite his team managing to secure the services of the six import players, other teams have also followed suit and this will make for a thrilling and exciting league competition that will be keenly contested by not just a few teams because most teams are now on par with each other.
Therefore Sarjit does not want to talk about how confident he is about THT being able to win it all.
"You can’t win everything when other teams have also beefed up their squads and are also eyeing top honours as well.
"Sometimes you need luck on your side as well. But what’s certain is when we managed to get top players like Peillat on board, other teams took note and followed in the same footsteps.
"For me this only means that the Malaysian Hockey League promises to be keenly contested, exciting one to watch, and it will also benefit our local players as they will get to learn more than just a thing or two from these import players who are world-class players in their own right,” he said when met after training earlier today.
Apart from Peillat, THT have also successfully signed up three other Argentinian internationals in Joaquin Menini, Pablo Javier Trevisan and Barreiros Lopez.
THT have also secured the services of two other import players, one from Germany, and the other from Pakistan, and all the players will only report in at the end of next week on Saturday (January 6).
The team that won the TNB Cup four years in a row have also managed to retain the services of brothers Faizal and Fitri Saari for the new season.
"I will not deny that THT really need both Faizal and Fitri, as without them it would be very difficult for us,” admitted Sarjit.
The Malaysian Hockey League will begin next Wednesday (January 3) as teams look to lift the Tan Sri P. Alagendra Cup.