Friday, April 24, 2009

MHF - "Should Jiwa Mohan be recalled?."

Is Malaysian hockey in desperate times? I ask this question because i believe that in desperate times, desperate measures are taken. Therefore is the recall of retired international like Jiwa Mohan, an act of desperation by the management of the national team.

My first thought is that this is a crazy thing to do especially as the national team has already been training together for nearly 4 months and having done the South Korean tour plus the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament. It would seem that the coaches had come to this realisation at such a late stage, that a player of Jiwa Mohan's status is required i.e 3 weeks before the commencement of Asia Cup.

What worries me, is whether a last minute inclusion of Jiwa Mohan would disrupt the team spirit and structure. The hockey lads have been working out as a team and when someone comes and takes over one of their friends place, would this go down well with the rest?

Further the coaches are assuming that Jiwa Mohan is in "tip top" condition. I do not know if the team management have been in communication with the club he is playing for in Australia, to determine his performance level. Surely before MHF gets him back to Malaysia, it would be wise also to ask the Western Australian Sports Institute to assess his fitness and recovery levels. I think MHf should not wait and then become pro-active only once he is Malaysia.

Now itself i must caution the coaches that if Jiwa Mohan does not play to expectation or creates major fumbles in the Asia Cup, then the coaches must face the onslaught consequences. No! i am not threatening anyone except to alert them.

Having given one side of the argument, we must now look at the other side and see through the eyes of Beng Hai and Saiful, the national coach and his assistant respectively. They are obviously not shaking their legs, sitting down and just collecting their salaries. Given the challenge to handle the national squad, they too have a destiny to fulfill. They have started on the right track but the key question is whether they have sufficient quality players. In Malaysian context maybe but pitted against international teams, there are glaring weakness.

It is probably in this context that Beng Hai & Saiful maybe recalling Jiwa Mohan. Afterall he is still playing competitive hockey and the presumption is he must be fit. Further he had just retired from international hockey and the advantage is that he has played with most of the current players. Therefore fitting into the team is not an issue.

The coaches believe that Jiwa Mohan is a good penalty shot specialist and he is a versatile player. In fact he would become a major asset to the team. Jiwa Mohan is a hard working and has tremendous fighting spirit. He would add that extra "kick" to the team.

Honestly, i think recalling Jiwa Mohan is a wise decision by the coaches, as it would sent a message that players cannot take things for granted. Nobody is indispensable and if it means any time other players have to be recalled, the coaches have that right. Players must know that there is competition for places in the national squad.

I think what is important is for Beng Hai & Saiful to get they team ready for the Asia Cup and perform to the level that would truly make Malaysians proud of our boys.

3 comments:

ex international said...

Desperate times require desperate measures other wise you want these 2 coaches tomiss their soru.I say as i have said before bring M. MAHENDRAN back and why is everybody scared of instilling discipline into the team.

MAHENDRAN FOR MALAYSIA

Anonymous said...

Gandhi,

What do Malaysian players lack?

Certaintly not money.

What do Malaysian coaches lack?

Certaintly quality players?

We can't create quality players by throwing money for success.

Remember I read somewhere,"The direction in which education starts a man,will determine his feature life".

From the tender age,we are rewarding players with money.

Why not reward them via education?

As the mind evolve so will be the player.

Players will understand about money,think faster on the field and why they want to be a national player.

We are always taking temporary measures.

For our knowledge look at the Australian team sports.

Name it, Rugby,hockey,cricket and even now football are world standard.

For the record,former Malaysian hockey coach Terry Walsh has a degree in mathematics before he further to became a hockey coach.

Yes I know the great "Socrates" once said "Those who have natural talent for calculation are generally quick at other kind of knowledge'.

Malaysia is a country not short of eniment people to put Malaysia team sports back to the glory days,
we have administrators who have short memory because not able to percieve because they are poor listener.

Put the right people at the right position and they will show the road to excellence.

I will end with this wise words
"The beginning is the most important part of anywork,especially in the case of a young and tender being,for that is the time character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken"

Thank You.


"SHADOW"

ex international said...

Shadow for your information we Malaysians created terry walsh the COACH as we tend to look up to mat sallehs even if they had no prior coaching experience.Another point here is terry was paid like 20 plus k a month but when it came to local coaches mhf would only offer in the region of 5k and there where those who used to collect the same 15rgt(which by the way included your meal) allowances like the players in the 70's and 80'.