A. Kannagi in action during a training session.
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) want to turn their Young Tigress into a strong women’s team before the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.
The Young Tigress are a women’s development team formed to participate in next year’s Malaysian Hockey League (MHL).
They will face off with five other sides – PKH-Uniten, Mutiara Impian, Police, Sabah and UniKL Ladies – in the league from Jan 20 to Feb 20.
The team will be led by ex-international A. Kannagi and so far, they have gathered 24 players, five of them signed from different clubs from last season’s MHL.
The others are selected from tournaments like Malaysia Games (Sukma) and Razak Cup.
Kannagi said all of them had been selected following recommendation from their talent scouts.
“We made a thorough selection and made sure we picked the best young players for exposure.
“They’ve the potential to play for the country one day, ” said Kannagi
“We have players from the age of 18 to 22, and only three are over 22.
MHC president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal said they wanted to elevate the women’s game to a higher level and the best way to do it was through their development team.
“We are ranked 20th in the world and fifth in Asia.
“It’s time to go big and think big, and we are doing our best to enhance the women’s hockey team, ” said Subahan.
“I’m not expecting the Young Tigress to perform wonders in the 2022 Asian Games but for the 2026 edition, we must aim for a top-two finish.”
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