OVER 80 per cent of the national players who made history by winning the 2024 Sepaktakraw World Cup have been retained for the 2025 Sepaktakraw Asian Cup, which begins on Saturday (May 10).
Sepaktakraw Association of Malaysia (PSM) president Datuk Sumali Reduan said the decision was taken to ensure that the national team can continue to excel as well as to strengthen the existing combinations ahead of the prestigious regional tournament.
“There are not many changes to the lineup. For example, we keep the existing lineup in the regu event but have added a young player, Khairul Aman Mohd Rosdi, to strengthen the mix of senior and new players.
“For the doubles event, we are keeping the same pairing but adding another young player, Muhammad Ridzwan Hakim Muhammad,” he said, adding that they have formed scratch pairs for the quadrant event.
He said this at a press conference following the launch of the national sepaktakraw team’s jersey and squad for the 2025 Asian Cup here today and also present was Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria, who is also the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) vice-president.
Sumali said they would pay special attention to ending the nation’s 33-year title drought in the team regu event.
At today’s event, the PSM unveiled the national squad’s new jersey, sponsored by international sports brand Puma.
Sumali said the new jersey, featuring the official colours of yellow and black, is expected to boost the players’ morale and inspire them to perform excellently at the championship.
He also thanked Puma and Telekom Malaysia (TM) for their partnerships with PSM in this tournament and the upcoming sepaktakraw development programmes nationwide.
The 2025 Asian Cup will have four events: regu, doubles, quadrant and team regu.
Malaysia have been drawn in Group D for the regu event alongside the Philippines, Nepal and Singapore. In the team regu event, Malaysia are in Group B with South Korea, Brunei and Japan.
For the quadrant event, Malaysia are grouped in Group B with the Philippines, Japan and China, while in the doubles event, Malaysia have Thailand, Taiwan and Nepal for company in Group B.
