KUALA LUMPUR: Two more players from Perak – defender Jagdev Singh, 18, and midfielder Harmit Singh, 17 – have been called up to join the Project 2013 hockey training squad.

Coach K. Dharmaraj said he was impressed with their performances in the age-group tournaments last year.

“Jagdev did well for Anderson School in the Malaysian Junior Hockey League (MJHL) last year and has the ability to play for the Project 2013 squad,” he said.

He added that although Harmit did not feature in the MJHL last year, the student from Anglo Chinese School (ACS) of Ipoh performed well in the National Under-18 tournament.

“He is an up-and-coming player with a lot of talent and I believe he has a chance to lead the midfield,” said Dharmaraj, who is assisted by K. Gobinathan and Nor Azlan Bakar.

“Both of them have joined our training this week and will play in the three friendly matches against Seongju City Hall of South Korea this week.”

Dharmaraj said although he has 35 players in the training squad, he would still need many more as he prepares the team for the Junior World Cup qualifying tournament in 2012.

“We will send players for attachment with foreign clubs every year in a bid to prepare a strong team for the qualifiers,” he said.

“Mohd Noor (Faeez Ibrahim) will be the first player from the Project squad to play for Hatem Club in Division Two of the Dutch League next week.”

The Project squad will also compete in a quadrangular at the Tun Razak Stadium from March 4-7. The other teams in the quadrangular are the national team, Mannheim Hockey Club of Germany and Seongju City Hall.

Dharmaraj said the Project squad would not feature in the Razak Cup in Kuantan on March 24-April 3 “as we do not have any assignments this year”.

The players, he added, would be allowed to play for their respective states in the Razak Cup.