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.