Eustice heads to Malaysia
Former Benoni Northerns Junior Hockey (BNJH) player Jethro Eustice jetted off from OR Tambo International Airport on the night of July 21, to ply his hockey trade as an international professional player in the TNB Malaysia Hockey League.
The 25-year-old South African men’s national hockey player will be donning the colours of the University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) in the six-week long, six-team tournament, which is a similar concept to the Hockey India League (HIL).
He said the UniKL team is a mixed bag of young players (19, 20 and 21-year-olds), combined with a few players with international caps.
Eustice is hoping to get in a few training sessions and to acclimatise to the hot and humid Malaysian conditions ahead of the tournament, which gets going on August 2.
On his new adventure the player, who has donned the captain’s armband for his country, said he is excited to be one of three international players in the team and to play competitive hockey ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled to be held in Egypt, in October, but which could be moved to South Africa due to security concerns.
Eustice is expecting some interesting hockey in the Malaysian tournament.
“I think the top players will be exceptional, but the younger guys might be a little bit off the pace,” he told the City Times.
“It will be a new experience for me, because whenever I have played for a club overseas I have been expected to do a bit of coaching work and play at the same time, but this time I am just playing, so that will be great.”
