BUKIT JALIL, Nov 12 — Tigers captain Sukri Abdul Mutalib said Malaysia are not going to the World Cup as mere participants. He wants the team to hit their targets and picked Australia as the heavy favourites to win hockey’s biggest prize.

India are hosting the World Cup in Bhubaneswar from November 28 to December 16.

Malaysia are in Pool D with Holland, Germany and Pakistan — all former world champions — and have a daunting task if they are to move out of the group stages. They need to at least win one game to finish in third place and advance to the quarterfinals. They’re targeting a win against Roelant’s former team Pakistan and hope to get a result against the other two giants on European hockey.

"It wasn’t an easy task getting to the World Cup. The boys are excited to get there with new coach Roelant Oltmans and are focused on getting over our first obstacle, which is to move into the quarters,” said Sukri during a press conference at the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) headquarters at Bukit Jalil Hockey Stadium today.

"Personally, I don’t want the mentality of us going to India just to participate in the tournament. We have set goals and there’s a burning desire to do well and take Malaysian hockey to another plateau. I want people to look at us as a strong and formidable team.

"We are not at 100 per cent. I want to see us work on our weaknesses in these two weeks,” added the 31-year-old.

MHC have lined up three test matches — 16, 20 and 22 against world No. 9, New Zealand at Bukit Jalil stadium — and Roelant is hoping to use these matches to fine-tune the team.

"We fully respect the teams in our pool but in the end, we must be ready to play against these stronger teams,” said the Dutchman.

"Pakistan is the match we are looking to win and matches between us are very close. I want to give the squad as much game time as possible, and I want us to play in a certain way.

"New Zealand is a great test for us to see if we have made strides in our team cohesion.”

Having won the World Cup twice — first with the Dutch women’s team in 1990 and then men’s team in 1998 — Roelant was asked what he feels a team needs in order to have a successful World Cup.

"It’s actually a long process. To be really successful, you must have a development programme where everything’s in place from the moment you start till the World Cup,” he said.

"Is there enough competition, the right type of training and you always need some luck.

"Sometimes, the margins are so close between winning and losing and these things are out of our control. What we must focus on is what’s in our hands. Executing penalty corners and doing the right things when in attack and defence.”

Malaysia leave for Bhubaneswar on November 25 and open their campaign against Holland on December 1.

List of World Cuppers

• Kumar Subramaniam
• Hairi Abdul Rahman
• Sukri Abdul Mutalib
• Razie Abdul Rahim
• Syed Syafiq Syed Cholan
• Faiz Helmi Jali
• Azri Hassan
• Nabil Fiqri Noor
• Marhan Jalil
• Fitri Saari
• Faizal Saari
• Meor Azuan Hassan
• Joel Samuel Van Huizen
• Tengku Ahmd Tajuddin Tengku Abdul Jalil
• Firhan Ashari
• Nik Aiman Nik Rozemi
• Norsyafiq Sumantri
• Ramadan Rosli