Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) veteran Baljit Singh is 33 (pic) – and aiming to stay as a vital cog in the champions of the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL).

After all, he has been there ever since UniKL started their rise from the Malaysia Junior Hockey League (MJHL) to the senior league.

Baljit previously featured for Tenaga Nasional (TNB), winning the overall title three times in 2004, 2007 and 2009 before joining UniKL for the 2012 season.

“I was among the first senior players to join UniKL and it has been an awesome journey to see the team grow and finally become the MHL champions last season,” he said.

“UniKL started with young talented players, we kept moving forward, strengthening the team with senior players and last season, the project delivered the result as we became a top team.

“From a junior team, we are now a proper club with our own hockey stadium – the Tengku Abdullah Hockey Stadium in Bangi. We now aim to be consistently challenging for the title.”

The team, under the guidance of former international A. Arulselvaraj, are planning to defend their title and also gun down the overall title to clinch the double next year.

The team will be led by national skipper Mohd Sukri Abdul Mutalib, Mohd Razie Abdul Rahim, Mohd Marhan Mohd Jalil, Mohd Ashran Hamsani and Mohd Najmi Farizal Jazlan.

They will also have former Australian international Timothy Deavin and Ireland international goalkeeper David Hearte in their campaign which begins with the MHL Charity Shield match against overall champions Terengganu on Jan 10.

Baljit said the team had been training for a week and head coach Arulselvaraj will join the team end of the month.

“We need to hit the ground running when the MHL starts, so we need to win the Charity Shield game. A winning start will set the tone for the season,” said Baljit.