KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — The national men’s cricket squad aims to sweep all three gold medals on offer at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia next month.
They are eyeing a clean sweep in the Twenty20 (T20), Ten10 (T10) and 50-overs format events with the squad coached by Pakistani Bilal Asad also aware of main rivals Singapore being the main obstacle towards that purpose.
Team captain Ahmad Faiz Mohd Noor said the 2023 edition is a golden opportunity for Malaysia to go one better over the one gold and silver secured in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, which was the last time cricket was contested.
“Looking at the rankings and current performances, we are among the favourites but we are not going to rest on our laurels. We remain focused, train according to what the coach wants, and follow the plan lined up by the (Malaysian Cricket) Association,” he said at a media conference at the National Sports Council here today.
However, the 35-year-old native of Sungai Petani, Kedah won’t be underestimating the competition at the games, despite the national squad having the experience of playing at higher-level competitions in the last few years.
In the 2017 edition, Malaysia won the 50-overs gold but had to settle for the T20 silver after losing to Singapore.
Meanwhile, Asad is confident his men could achieve the three golds in Cambodia after seeing them working hard in training for the past two years.
“To be honest I am confident, I believe in this team because it’s not that I’ve been working with these players (only) now, I was with the Malaysian cricket team from 2011 (as assistant coach then appointed as head coach) until 2018. In 2019, I came back because I believed that this team can go further.
“We work very hard, for example during this fasting month, all my players fast and come for training at 2pm. We had a test match yesterday and they were fasting. They are hard-working,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) High-Performance Director V. Vijayalingam said the women’s squad which is currently in preparations in Sri Lanka has a target of three silver medals in the T20, T10 and 50-overs formats respectively. — Bernama
