Malaysia: Game All: Cut the rot, save the game
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| Malaysia |
August 17, 2003 
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Johnson Fernandez
MALAYSIAN hockey is being dragged down the gutter by the officials, those at the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) in particular.
As if that is not bad enough, national players are now also compromising the country.
Have you ever wondered why Malaysia were beaten by England in the classification match at the Champions Challenge in South Africa? How can Malaysia go from beating England 4-1 in a preliminary fixture to losing 3-2 in the classifications?
It is actually an old sickness, but this particular defeat was aided and abetted by two players who obviously didn’t think much of placing matches.
Rather, they were focused on a game of a more personal nature. They had women in their rooms the night before. But of course, you have not heard about it because that is the Malaysian mentality.
The officials have seen the cancer but instead of performing the surgery to arrest the spread, they have opted to keep the players in the squad.
I don’t want to mention the names at the moment because that would probably destroy the family of one the players, who is married.
I am not taking the high moral grounds here either. Infidelity is not my business but it bothers me when the honour of the nation is taken for granted, and compromised.
Just one hint though: South African girls seem to like guys with long hair!
It makes it worse that the performance of the two players has been on the decline for sometime now. They were among those who didn’t deliver in Randburg.
I daresay this: Malaysian hockey will not improve under the present regime, who compromise on virtually everything.
Look at what they have made of the Malaysian Hockey League (MHL). They have totally messed it up, not knowing where to draw the line where country and club are concerned.
MHF would rather place more importance on a hockey carnival in Poznan than ensure that we have a proper domestic league. It was bad enough that the league had to take a long break because of the Champions Challenge and two weeks after resuming, it has taken another break.
The MHL will resume with the quarterfinals but if you are one of those ardent followers who is expecting close, high quality matches, you may be disappointed.
Some of the teams such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Ernst & Young and Sapura are among the hardest hit. They have not only lost players to the team in Poznan but the national players have also to report to Paul Lissek every morning.
The clubs have complained that the national players are holding back when training in the evenings because of the physical workouts in the morning with the national team.
Some of these teams are wondering whether the RM500,000 they spend each year is really worth it. They could just pull out of the MHL, but MHF obviously do not think it is their problem.
MHF are more interested in Poznan and staging the Asia Cup, never mind that they are messing up the domestic game.
How do you rescue the game now? The rot is from top to the bottom. When you try to deal with selfish, incompetent officials in the MHF and their affiliates, you are dealt another blow at the other end – the self-centred players!
Just where does the rot stop?
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