Malaysia

BY S. RAMAGURU

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) have decided to postpone all the Malaysia Hockey League matches scheduled to be played in the Klang Valley this weekend because of the worsening haze.

The MHF vice-president, Datuk Bashir Abdul Majid, said yesterday that they took the decision after consulting the National Sports Institute's (NSI) director, Dr Ramlan Aziz.

A total of eight matches are affected.

Earlier in the morning, the MHF had call up all the teams to seek their views on the postponement of matches.


ON AS USUAL: Royal Malay Regiment’s match against Dolphin in Lumut this weekend will go on as scheduled.
Only defending overall champions Tenaga Nasional favoured a postponement.

The others said they were ready to play the matches and would leave it to the technical officials to decide on whether to call off the matches just before the scheduled start.

“We are concerned about the haze situation and we felt that it was better to seek their views. Later in the evening when the haze worsened, we decided to consult the NSI,” said Bashir.

“Dr Ramlan was clear on the matter. The health of the players was at stake and he asked us to postpone the matches. We have informed the teams concerned about our decision to postpone the matches.”

He added that the matches scheduled to be played in Sungei Petani and Lumut will go on as scheduled.

“We will ask the match technical officials for matches in these venues to assess the situation and make an on-the-spot decision on whether the weather condition is hazardous to the players.”

The MHL schedule has the preliminary rounds ending on Aug 26 with the knockout stage beginning on Aug 28.

“Now we will either have to play these postponed matches in the middle of the coming weeks or reschedule the start of the knockout stage to a few days or a week later,” said Bashir.

“We prefer not to postpone the final slated for Sept 11 because the Razak Cup will be coming up next (Sept 23-30). We will meet next week to decide on the matter. We hope the haze situation will clear up. Otherwise, we will be in for more problems.”

The MHF can still stage the final on Sept 18 but that means that some states will have about five days to get their team together for the Razak Cup.

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