Spain, Australia And South Korea To Have Test Series With Malaysia 
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| Malaysia |
August 30, 2005 
Bernama
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The national hockey team will be pitting their skills against Spain, Australia and South Korea in December before heading off to China to flex their muscles at the World Cup Qualifiers in April.
Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) secretary T. Paramalingam said the test matches were part of the national team's preparation for the qualifiers before taking on the real test four months later.
"It is also for them to gauge their standard and skills against these teams. Besides they will be facing South Korea in the qualifiers. It is better to know our opponents' progress," he told Bernama here Tuesday.
He said that Spain and Australia will be in Malaysia from Dec 1 to 6 while South Korea will here from Dec 16 to 28.
"Spain and Australia will each play one test match with us and one more against each other. We have not decided if we want to have more than one test match.
"South Korea have yet to confirm on the number of test matches they want to play with us. But I think, most probably it would be three test matches," Paramalingam said.
He also said MHF had decided to call off the national team tour to China in December.
"We decided that it is better for the national squad to play with the three teams in December and go for the China tour next year," he said.
There will be 12 teams in the qualifiers -- Malaysia, host China, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, four teams from Europe, one team from Oceania and one team from the African continent.
Five teams will qualify for the World Cup which will be held from Sept 6 to 17 in Monchengladbach, Germany.
Argentina and India have booked their tickets to the World Cup from the continental qualifiers and Germany as the host.
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