One of the darkest days of Malaysian hockey was recorded in 1973 at the SEA Games where Malaysia were beaten to the gold medal by hosts Singapore.
Even till this day the defeat is often brought up to remind Malaysians on just how low we went.
But one can now disregard that fateful day and mark a new date for the lowest depths of hockey - thanks to the Malaysian women 3-0 defeat at the hands of Thailand, yes you read it right Thailand, in the ongoing Asian Hockey Federation Indoor Championships.
Never-mind the defeats to Uzbekistan or the trashing at the hands of Kazakhstan, for losing to Thailand to borrow a quote from a TV reality show is mind blowing, outrageous and above all damn right insulting to hockey in this country.
Firstly only 9 players, where one player is a player cum manager was sent to Bangkok and that was due to MHC cutting cost
No medical or support staff and mind you the team only trained 5 sessions before flying off to Bangkok.
And I. Vikneswaran who was tasked with coaching the team was never formally appointed by the MHC Coaching Committee and nor was he allowed to select players. Just 9 players were given to him to train.
It was on Sept 23 after the MHC Council meeting that the MHC Deputy President kept on talking about the participation of the indoor team to Bangkok and even Tengku Abdullah had to mention, upon insistence from his Deputy that the trophy was named after Tuanku Bainun.
So after spending RM15,000, taking the hockey fraternity for a ride by not sending the best available players what lesson has been learnt - that you do not need a genius to reduce Malaysian hockey to tatters.
Take action against those who have misled by sending an inept team to Bangkok.
In the first place why were we there? .
