KUALA LUMPUR: National men’s hockey team head coach Sarjit Singh is adamant that they are on the right track despite their lacklustre performances of late.
He feels that the Speedy Tigers are on the right track and just need a little bit of time to reach the desired level.
“If you ask me, the team are getting better. It’s just that the results are not forthcoming. Everybody knows we have three good players – Muhammad Marhan Mohd Jalil, Fitri Saairi and Faizal Saari.
“In this tournament (the recently-concluded Asian Champions Trophy), we could see that players like Nik Aiman (Nik Rozemi), Shello Silverius and Norsyafiq Sumantri as well as junior player Faris Harizan played well. Like I said on the first day (when he was appointed head coach), give us 18 months because you cannot see the changes overnight,” he told reporters at a media conference at the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) office today.
For the record, since taking charge of the Speedy Tigers in March from Arul Selvaraj, Sarjit Singh has failed to guide the team to any titles in the three tournaments they have participated in so far this year.
Skipper Muhammad Marhan admitted that the players still have a lot of room for improvement.
As such, he said, they will continue to work on improving their weaknesses, especially their physical fitness.
“As the skipper and an experienced player, I will try to help the others build a winning mentality,” he said.
Meanwhile, MHC National Team Management Committee chairman Datuk Ahmad Najmi Abdul Razak said they would consider setting a key performance index (KPI) for Sarjit to achieve soon.
“We will set it when the time comes. It will be discussed at the next executive board meeting,” he said.
