Malaysian cricket - "A left over from the colonial era but certain officials undyingly maintain that mentality".

The former national coach resigned from the national cricket team after the fiasco of "cheating" him of a trip to Singapore for the ACC tournament at the end of August 2009.The manner in which certain officials conducted themselves on this matter reflect the lack of human understanding in them. They had created a "make believe" scenario as though the local coach was going to the tournament. At the same time they continuously delayed the paper work for him to obtain the necessary leave approvals. It was a process of buying time for they wanted the trainer to join the foreign coach for the trip. This made more 'political" sense for these officials as part of the "back scratching" concept in return for support from the affiliates. Essentially the former national coach was a victim of the maneuvering and manipulation that was being played by 2 key officials and a key staff.

The disgusted coach resigned with a "stinging" letter recommending MCA to continue employing foreign coaches. After all MCA was handsomely paying them with excellent fringe benefits while the local national coach was paid a pathetic attendance allowance. This did not go down well as the Executive Secretary of MCA wanted that part of the written statement to be withdrawn.

The former national coach had been involved with the national team from 1998 and in many ways for the love of the game he had "mortgaged his soul" by tolerating all the rubbish that was dished to him during that long years. He probably reached a "saturation point" when the MCA officials "played their latest number" on him.

Following the diabolical performance of the national team in Singapore and the departure of the foreign coach, there existed a "vacuum" on the coaching front. With the resignation of the local national coach, pressure was building up with the forthcoming of the Carl Schubert Trophy and the Saudara Cup games. Both the Under 23 team and Senior national team respectively needed to get into their regular training sessions. Guess who MCA turned for help? No other than the former local national coach.

What is interesting is that MCA took the coach for "granted" i e the "mortgaged soul". Indeed MCA was so sure he would turn up that they even sent out the leave approval letter to the coach's employer. However it would seem that the local coach had learnt his lesson and was determine to "redeem his mortgaged soul". Apparently now he wanted a formal invitation for the appointment and this MCA hesitatingly agreed.

Sources indicate that the local coach had responded in writing to MCA with his terms if he was to take up the appointment. Apparently he wanted a number of matters to be clearly defined from salaries, allowances to team selection and decision making. The concerned MCA officials were too "shocked" to react as they had underestimated the local coach. It would seem the MCA officials had loss their basic human touch because they always look down at people and communicate.

The officials were not prepared to engage into discussion with the local coach, so they turned to the national under 19 coach as a replacement. This person was the former national wicketkeeper and a amiable character. MCA was cautioned of his lack of ACC coaching certificates in an ACC tournament and yet thereafter MCA did nothing to rectify the situation. This person gladly accepted the appointment as coach for both the games. His terms of appointment is not clear-cut and probably in the future he too would be a victim of MCA's "games".

MCA cannot afford any long term appointments as their cash position is greatly depleted. Indeed the team for Carl Schubert Trophy had their train tickets purchased by a staff who advanced his personal funds. The position is so critical that MCA officials are debating whether they need to "break" their last deposit of RM$50,000 to pay off the long overdue creditors. There is a lot of "balancing act" that is taking place particularly with the "rolling" of funds. Therefore any long term financial commitments are not being considered.

In all this MCA had painted the wrong scenario giving the impression that everything is going on well. They have misled people to a stage they completely forgot or overlooked the human aspects of the issues. MCA played on the emotions of people whose sole "weakness" was the love for cricket. They capitalised on it and used to the maximum and when the time came the person was "constructively" dumped. Still they had the audacity to turn to him and when he wanted matters to be put in their proper perspective, like pushing "buttons" MCA left him in the lurch. Probably because cricket in Malaysia is a left over of the "colonial" era and some officials still strive with such mentality. Sad but it seem to be the operative nature of these people.