Making their first World Cup appearance since the 2002 event on home soil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will arrive in The Hague in high spirits following a decent run of form.
The team claimed a second place finish behind world number 1 and fellow Pool A rivals Australia in March’s Sultan Azlan Shah Cup (Ipoh, MAS) before taking Bronze at the recent Champions Challenge 1 event (Kuantan, MAS), their first ever medal in Champions Challenge competition.
They will be hoping that their recent progression will be the springboard to even greater accomplishments in The Hague. The team is coached by former Malaysian international Muhammad Dhaarma Raj, who stepped up from coaching the men’s U-21 team following the recent departure of South Africa’s Paul Revington.
The Malaysia side selected for the World Cup contains seven players who have made more than 200 international appearances – Azlan Misron (330+ caps), Mohamad Sukri Abdul Mutalib (210+), Mohd Sharun Nabil Abdullah (210+), Nabil Fiqri Mohd Noor (210+), Kumar Subramiam (goalkeeper – 210+) Muhammad Razie Abdul Rahim (200+) and Roslan Jamaluddin (goalkeeper – 200+).
Despite being the lowest ranked team in the competition, there is more than enough quality in this Malaysia side to cause problems for any opponent.
Best World Cup results:
The Malaysian men were 4th in 1975 (Kuala Lumpur) and have taken part in six
FIH World Ranking:
13th
Team
| 1 Roslan Jamaluddin | 6 Marhan Jalil |
| 7 Fitri Saari | 9 Hafifi Hanafi |
| 10 Faizal Saari | 11 Shahrun Abdullah |
| 12 Sukri Mutalib | 13 Firhan Ashari |
| 14 Azlan Misron | 15 Nabil Mohd Noor |
| 16 Kumar Subramiam | 17 Razie Abd Rahim |
| 18 Faiz Jali | 23 Tengku Ahmad |
| 26 Shahril Saabah | 28 Ramadan Rosli |
| 30 Izad Jamaluddin | 31 Ismail Abu |
Staff
Head Coach – Muhammad Dhaarma Raj
Assistant Coach – K. Gobinathan
Team Manager – George Koshy
Stand-In Manager – Nor Azian Bakar
Team Doctor – Abdul Rafar
Physiotherapist – Yeo Inseung