Monday, July 13, 2009

MHF - " All in a mess from office bearers to committees to affiliates."

This is what the detractors of MHF were awaiting. 4th place at Dublin for the senior National team, provides the "grinding stone" for them to sharpen their swords to take on the office bearers in MHF on their shortcoming. For 8 months many have shut their mouths and kept accepting the things MHF Management Committee and other MHF Committees were doing. Right or wrong, constitutional or unconstitutional, they just remained ambivalent to the happenings.

The swords were taken out after Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, Asia Cup and Junior World Cup. Many were not happy with the teams' performances and also with various other things that should have taken place. The Coaching Committee and the Umpires Board completely failed to ride on the FIH sanctioned tournaments to organise the respective courses. Their failure of not getting something done in at least 1 of the 3 tournaments was a highly negligent act by these Committees. Malaysian coaches and umpires could have had the opportunity to uplift their status in their respective arenas. MHF completely "flopped" to provide that platform.

While these Committees remained in "hibernation" stage, the question comes to mind what were the hierarchy of MHF doing? Fundamentally it boils down to a weak administration and the General Secretary must take the full rap . A good General Secretary in the mould of Datuk Vijiyanathan or the late S Satgunam would have reminded the President and the various Committee Chairmen of the need for organising such courses. It essentially reflects in the words of the "102 former hockey internationals" that MHF does not have the "right person in the right position".

The General Secretary is the "heartbeat" of any Sports Association and if he remains "dull or slow" in outlook, then the Association would face insurmountable consequences. This probably may explain the current scenario in MHF. I must say this has been the hallmark of MHF over the last 3 to 4 years.

It does not excuse the leadership particularly the TM. This is what surprises me about him. A sports loving Prince who generally cares about sports, yet seems to have a high degree of tolerance for the inefficiencies that prevails in MHF. Most of these are self-created by the officials and the TM seem very forgiving. It has come to a point when one wonders whether he is aware of it or such matters are not brought to his knowledge. The TM must appreciate that he is allowing people to speculate and whatever it is the "bug has to stop with him"

A good example is the issue of the players involved in "alcohol consumption". The 2 incidents, one with regard to training and the other with regard to the wee hours of the morning reflect the situation of discipline issues with the team.
The sad aspect is that MHF slapped them with a light punishment and left the quantum of fines with the team manager. It all boiled down to the issue of "gerrymandering" by officials to serve the interests of vested parties. The point being the TM seem to tolerate it knowingly or unknowingly.

The biggest single problem that MHF is facing is the lack of planning because of the failure of all their Committees to perform. The Development Committee seem totally "lost" as to what to do, Competition Committee does not know about other hockey events taking place before they put up their schedules, Coaching Committee is embroiled whether it should rightfully exists, Umpires Board seem not to have the interest in getting more Malaysian umpires to international class while the Team Management Committee (TMC) may not have the right to exist plus appoint the relevant coaches and officials.

All of that seem to give the impression of incompetency at MHF. This can only happen because the Affiliates themselves are the ones who make up most of the officials of MHF. Yet the current "detractors" in MHF who are some of these Affiliates must be blamed for what is happening. Interesting is that the detractors had permitted all these to happen over the last 8 months, without raising issues at the various Council meetings. It would seem that they must have an agenda to bring the issues when they think MHF is at its lowest.

The Affiliates must know that they are responsible for what is happening in MHF. They must share the success and failures but it would seem they are only interested in safeguarding themselves. They are just interested in themselves and being critical of MHF does not relieve them of their responsibilities. The Affiliates have to be pro-active and genuinely participate in MHF. They must understand the basic point and that is they make up MHF. Good or bad they are responsible. There are no 2 ways about it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! Cant help but LOL on "the bug has to stop with him." MHF must have been infested with bugs! Maybe it's the proverbial stink bug that is currently infesting all sport bodies in the country. Gandhi, we would be delighted if if you could plant a bug in MHF and get the infos on what caused the outburst at the Coaching comm.
Pass the buck please.

darthvadai said...

I sorry but I feel let down by all parties in matters like this.

WHY is it when and only when the National teams have bad performances then all these issues come out?

There are so many question begging to be answered.

Were the respective coaching chairman of each state blind to the fact they were not appointed to the coaching committee? Or did they not know that are entitled to sit on the committee?

Why wait till now when since Jan/Feb when committee were formed only now question?

When committee are formed names are sent to the General Secretary, did we not know there were not the actually or genuine reps? Are we blind to the constitution that was revised and implements just a few years ago.

If we only going to end up saving question on policy and procedure issues as ammunition then we have failed to ask the right question.

This is not Humpty Dumpty that all are trying to put the pieces back together again, this is the version where each hold a bomb in their hands and then toss it when its convenient to them.

We have to progress so ask your self what constitutes progression

observer said...

Dear ghandhi as i always have mantained the rot started after 1992 when player were allowed to misbehave,smokingand drinking in the open was a norm.As the saying goes you sow what you seed.

The first person that should resign if he was man enough should be that chemma fella as the development part in mhf was never delivered.But this being Malaysia idiots like this will still survive.Untill entire state associations are revamped,so that all deadwood are out,nothing will change.