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Planet Field Hockey

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) have ag-reed to experiment with a new rule in the 2003 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament.

The new rule states that only eight players can defend inside the 25-yard line. Currently there is no restriction on the number of players defending in that zone.

The International Hockey Fede-ration?s (FIH) executive board said that they would experiment with the rule in four international tournaments. Besides the 2003 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the rule will be enforced in next year?s European Club championship. The other two are junior meets but the FIH have yet to identify them.

The MHF secretary, S. Satgunam, said yesterday: ?We will have no problem with putting the rule on trial in the 2003 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Although we have not received details yet, we will support the FIH in this experiment.?

The rule was drawn up last year and a few national associations have experimented with it.

But the executive board have decided to discard two rules, which were drawn up during the same time. The rules involved enlarging the scoring area and the long corner.

Another rule, which was tried out over the last two years, has been confirmed. It is the use of the edge of the hockey stick to score goals.

The secretary of the FIH rules board, Roger Webb, said that the rule to limit defenders inside the 25-yard area was meant to increase space to promote attacking and counter-attacking hockey.

?The rule has been extensively tried out in Australia and it was generally well-received,?? said Webb.

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