Saturday, June 20, 2009

"Rajan to remain as coach" - Is it not defending the turf even before a post mortem?

I had remained silent on the National Juniors because they were working towards achieving their targets in the Junior World Cup (JWC) 2009. I refrained from being critical as the boys needed support rather than criticisms in this late hour. No team wants to lose and in the 11th hour we should not dent the hopes of our boys, realistic or unrealistic as it may be. Once the tournament ends, there is ample time to do the post-mortem and make all the noise.

Peculiarly, before the post-mortem could be done and while struggling to find a placing of 11th or 12th in the JWC 2009 on home country, the main media and some known bloggers are already carrying the news that the Junior Chief Coach be retained for the 2013 JWC. The argument is that the coach has done a great job in the short time and that should give him the right for the 2013 job.

No! I have nothing against it except why "beat the gun". The coach target was last eight i.e quarter-finals, whereas MHF was semi-finals. It would seem on both the targets we were out of reach. Now the Juniors are struggling to a worse of position than 2005, where Malaysia was 10th.

Lets be logical ! Is it fair to ask for a coach to remain, when he does not meet his own target and above all MHF's unrealistic target. Further the placing of the Juniors is worst off than the previous JWC. Surely, this cannot be an objective call rather it is more like a defence of nominating the coach for the JWC 2009.

We need to realise that Malaysian hockey in a way is "gifted", because of the support of the Government ie NSC, yet our performance does not match the time, money and resources that have been invested. If we look at the other nations and do a comparative study, then we shall understand how we are "molly codling" hockey to the stage we are killing the players' and officials' hunger to succeed.

Why go that far? Compare to the days where players had to use their own resources to don national colours or go on international tournaments including Olympics. Their commitment and success rate was of a sterling nature. The reason being, nothing came easy as today.

Rather than blowing the trumpet of relatively an unfavourable position of the Juniors in the JWC 2009 and attempting to grab the straws to hold on out of desperation, it is paramount an urgent post mortem be carried to determine why the Juniors were "off target" and what should be done to avoid such a situation in the future. Further i believe an analysis of the Junior players be done and determine how best they can fit into the various national teams.

I believe the ideal choice for the post mortem panel is:
  1. R Yogeswaran - a complete hockey personality.
  2. Stephen Van Huizen - the most successful Malaysian national coach in the modern era.
  3. Ow Soon Kooi - a self made rags to riches personality, a former national captain.
  4. V Sivapathasundram - the teacher from Tampin, who created talents that provided the stars of the various national teams.
  5. Mokhtar Baharudin - the teacher from Ipoh, who seem to be the modern day "Sivapathasundram".

I think these people can provide a fair position of the Juniors state of affairs and do the needful recommendation. So, blowing the trumpet now particularly as the achievement is completely off target may create a perception that failure is acceptable despite the huge resources that was invested. Lets not pull wool over the eyes.

In the meantime, if the Committee feels Rajan has done a good job and circumstances did not permit him to get the results with the team, I believe MHF should second him for a period of 18 months to the coaching units of one of the top 4 teams in the world like Australia, Germany, Holland or Spain. The condition precedent is that he must get his FIH Level 1 certificate. This way we also start the exercise to train our coaches with an excellence background .

Lets see how serious MHF gets down to repairing the dilemma.

5 comments:

observer said...

Who is writing this crap,stephen a sucessful coach,please stop this stupidity.Yogeswaran,stephen,wallace n colin are the reason Malaysian hockey is in the shit house.The rot started after 1992 till today and checkout the personalities who were incharge from then.

Malaysian hockey needs a urgent revamp starting with the dicipline of players first and then appointing the correct people in the correct positions.Please la stop this recycling business as it has been going on for far too long.

Gandhi, said...

Dear Observer,

I totally disagree with you. The statistics are a proof of what i wrote about the 2 people i.e Datu Yoges and Stephen.

If you use emotion as a yardstick, then it is difficult to see facts from fiction.

Rather then being hazy about your comment, why not suggest names to avoid the "recycling" of people.

I will be awaiting for your recommendations.

observer said...

When you talk about statistics what statistics are you talking about,being a constant host to events so that the national team gets to play in them.The standard of the game has come to such a low level in the world and yet we are still in the backwaters.

You mentioned names well some come to mind, people like M.mahendran,S.sivabalan,chandran,Mohinder singh and i am sure the are more if we look deeper.It is about time that we remove the blinkers that the mhf coaching commitee had on it for the last 16 years.

Let me tell you something at times statistics don't matter but rather the will to try change for the betterment of hockey.Malaysian hockey which is now only good for hosting events needs changes as i suspect the Tengku Mahkota is not told the truth on the what is happening on the ground ,not when you have quite a few slimeballs trying to cari makan like politicians.

Gandhi, said...

Dear Observer,

Thank you for your prompt response.

Lets put the names in the hat and let MHF decide.

The more the better, so long there is a "yardstick for selection.

All i say is that there is a need for an objective approach, not one that is highly subjective, which would be governed by emotions.

This is probably where we disagree but at least it is healthy and may give birth to better ideas.

I must thank you for engaging into this discussion.

Anonymous said...

I do not wish to jump on the bandwagon questioning the post mortem panel but can't help laughing my head off at the 5th proposed name. It's a real insult him to the to the 4th name. What has he really done in the real sense to be in the panel? Track record?! More like to put on muhibbah composition. Surely there are more deserving teachers or ex-teachers out there. Why none of the sports school coaches considered? They have been in the national juniors scene for the last 5 - 6 years.