Sports

Thursday March 26, 2009

Shahzrul and Shahzril seek to become first twins in national team

By AFTAR SINGH

KUALA LUMPUR: The Nazli twins, Shahzrul Imran and Shahzril Irwan, had a childhood dream to play for the national hockey team.

And with persistence and determination, the Form Four students of Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) have gone on track to achieve their ambition. Both of them have earned call-ups to join the national Under-16 training squad.

They had in the recent national Under-16 tournament in Seremban helped Perak to finish as the runners-up and forward Shahzril bagged five goals.

On right track: Twins Shahzrul Imran Nazli (right) and Shahzril Irwan have been called up for national U-16 training.

The twins, who will turn 16 on Aug 27, also feature for BJSS in Division Two (Under-19) of the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL).

Defender Shahzrul said that they wanted to become the first twin brother to don national colours.

“There have been brothers playing for the national team but never twins. We hope to be the first,’’ he said.

Shahzrul added that they were happy that all their hard work in training paid off with a call-up to train with the national Under-16 squad.

“We hope to feature for Malaysia in the 2013 Junior World Cup,’’ he said.

The Mohans, Jiwa and Jivan, and the Misrons, Azlan and Azli, were among the brother to have played for the national team.

Shahzrul added that there were many players (36) in the training squad and they would have to work much harder to win places in the team for a four-nation junior tournament in Germany and also the Under-16 Asia Cup in Dhaka in October.

Said Shahzril: “My brother and I took up hockey when we were in primary school and we have are playing for BJSS for the third consecutive time in the junior league. We bagged the double last year and we hope to retain both the titles this year.”

BJSS, who have the maximum 15 points from five matches, will play against Setapak High School tomorrow and they will take on MSN Malacca on Sunday.

BJSS coach S. Prakash said that both Shahzrul and Shahzril were dedicated and hard working players.

“They have good leadership qualities too and they always give their best in tournaments,’’ he said.

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