Sunday, July 13, 2008

Is it "sayonara" to Malaysian hockey?

In Hyderabad, India, Asian World Junior Hockey tournament is currently being played. On Friday 11th. July, Malaysia drew with Singapore 2-2 and on 12th July, Malaysia lost to India 3-1. For Malaysia qualifying for the World Junior Tournament in 2009 is not an issue, as we are joint host with Singapore.

So why all the fuss? Lately, there have been so many "happenings" on and off the field, that the very survival of Malaysian hockey has become a question mark. On the field, the Senior team failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics along with miserable performances at the Asia Cup and Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy. The Juniors disastrous tour to Europe, including losing to a team like Austria. The Under-16 tour to Europe continued similarly with the dismal performance of the Seniors and Juniors, by losing all their games.

Off the field, there have been enough allegations from match fixing, money lending, gambling, "buying" service of senior player, shoddy training regime, close rapport with media to provide a certain perception, offering trips and positions in national teams to officials from affiliates, ad-hoc decisions, power being concentrated in the "de facto" leader rather than President and etc etc etc etc etc.

One thing is certain and that is Malaysian hockey is at a "chronic" state. We should not be here but the current leadership in MHF have permitted the slide to this disastrous scenario. It all boils down to the wrong people being elected to administer hockey in Malaysia. Without mincing my words, the President, Deputy President down to Coaching Committee and the Coaches are directly responsible for this state of affairs.

Never in the Malaysian hockey history have we had such a pathetic outlook. The future of hockey looks extremely bleak. Juniors and Under-16 cannot be relied on to be the future of Malaysian hockey. Even more surprising is that the Chairman of Coaching Committee and his Coaches are "clueless" as to what to do. The President is "dumb founded" while the Deputy President continues his "hide and seek" game in order to be in the right place at the right time for the right position. The Secretary is dealing with everyone in order to survive while the Treasurer is trying to balance his books without having the funds. The Vice-Presidents are positioning themselves to be in the good books of the "President in Waiting".

It is a "mumbo jumbo" state of affairs in MHF. Nobody is interested in hockey. MHF has dumped the Age Group hockey to MSSM, cancelled the Champion Schools Tournament and has no direction on the aspect of grass root development. Their core pre-occupation is "fire fighting", creating a perception that nothing is wrong with MHF as they strategize to remain in power. All this has nothing to do with hockey and this probably explains why Malaysian hockey has not got its deserving attention, which itself has got us to this "chronic" state.

We might as well bid "sayonara" to the future of Malaysian hockey.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even god can't help MHF, but Satwant Singh Dhaliwale can! When he is finally given the grrenlight by the NSC to become the MHF general manager, he will become the Jesus of hockey.

Anonymous said...

I dont think you should use the name of JESUS in vain just to illustrate a point that MHF needs a saviour.Malaysian hockey is in deep trouble and yet the powers that be seem to be oblivious to whats happening.We can only pray that miracles do happen even if right now there does not seem to be any effort with the life goes on attitude of all concerned.

Anonymous said...

Ghandi,

You are absolutely right about the direction hockey is heading!

I am illiterate on the aspects of sports science application on the game of hockey.

For the sake of discussion, could the Malaysian Hockey team’s performance due to tactical short comings as claimed by some bloggers?

When we look back at the performance of the Malaysian hockey team for the year 2007, many hockey “experts” were in the opinion that the team’s performance was the best in recent years.

However, going into 2008, we definitely saw a sharp drop in the consistency of the team and at the moment it is going into a comatose stage.

When both periods are compared, it is easy to distinguish that the 2007 performance was the spin-off from the Doha Asian Games project. The momentum was still there for the team to do well in the tournaments shortly after Doha.

The team structure, concept and tactical approach were way more different compared to the team’s recent performances.

Statically, 80% of the players from the Doha project were still in the team that took part in both the SAS and Asia Cup.

The past management’s concept and ideas was clearly being applied by the players in the game in 2007.

It would have taken them a minimum of 6 months at least for the team to readjust and get familiar with the new coach’s ideas and concept after 2006 take over. After the the exellent 2006 spin-off momentum, there seems to be a missing link in the way the current team plays.

In short, HOW and WHAT the players dish out on the field now is the actual product of the current coaching set-up!

Hence, the Malay saying of “Lembu punya sapi, susu punya nama”, could be the case!

The work done in 2006 could be bearing fruit in the 2007.

Mr Wallace Tan, you have done your best and gracefully made the exit!

The question I would like to pose is that - Could your exit have been plotted?