Malaysia may host Champions Challenge

In all probability, Malaysia will host the inaugural Champions Challenge Trophy hockey tournament in December.

The Malaysian Hockey Federation became frontrunners to host the tournament following India's decision to withdraw as hosts because of security concerns expressed by participating nations.

Malaysian Hockey Federation secretary S Satgunam said Malaysia made a bid to host the December 7 to 15 event and is "confident" of winning it.

"We made the bid last week and are very confident of hosting the tournament," he said, adding: "We are expecting confirmation from the FIH [international hockey federation] by next week."

Argentina have also expressed their desire to host the tournament, but since the World Cup will be held in Kuala Lumpur most teams prefer travelling to Malaysia in order to get a feel of the surface and conditions.

The eight-team tournament includes Malaysia, Argentina, India, Poland, Canada, Spain, South Africa and Japan.

Except for Canada, the other seven teams will compete in the 2002 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, from February 25 to March 9.

The FIH have requested Malaysia to host the women's Champions' Challenge too but it is learnt that since Malaysian women's hockey is not of a very high standard, the MHF is not interested in hosting the women's event.

It is likely that South Africa will host the tournament.