Malaysia gained independence in 1957, free from the shackles of the colonists. But when at the Razak Cup, I was told all kind of stories by team officials, that the Tournament Director insisted on following regulations of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on everything with regards to the tournament.
It is clear that enforcing the regulations seem to be a question of demanding respect rather then trying to earn it through mutual understanding and the spirit ofworking together, ironing out issues through discussions rather then enforcing regulations as if they are etched in stone.
Such is the sad state of affairs of the Razak Cup that Perak had 11 players on the pitch and only three on the reserves bench, supposedly due to convocation. But these are things that could be adjusted rather then putting states in a fix.
But before we move further, Malacca and Perlis should have been rightfully be thrown out of the Razak Cup as they had failed to submit their team lists at the managers meeting which in accordance with the domestic and FIH regulations is the last forum to submit the final team list. Perlis stated that they were not informed on the date/time of the said managers meeting, hence they only sent in their list late Saturday night. And Malacca only submitted their team list late Sunday evening, after the tournament got underway, but yet saw it fit to release national trainee Chua Boon Huat earlier vide a letter of release.
So much for FIH regulations.
Next we have the issue of advertising and the inside goal backboards. The FIH regulations state that "backboards must be of a predominantly dark colour, Advertisiong markings must not be of the same colour as the ball. Now the backboards are blue in colour, the same colour as the pitch in Kuantan and at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup last May, the Tournament Director made it very clear that the boards cannot be blue. Then there is patchwork of the sponsors logo on the backboards, making it look akin to a pasar malam stall.
So much for FIH regulations.
Next is the issue of release letters and this gets better as the Tourtnament Director is also the Deputy President of the Armed Forces Hockey Association stated at the Team Managers meeting that six players representing Kelantan had not secured release letters from the ATM to represent Kelantan. Yet the players were allowed to play.
So much for FIH regulations.
Then we come to players wearing tights as teams were not allowed the flexibility of wearing black as was the rule in the recently concluded Malaysian Hockey League. Though some officials pleadedfor exemption from the first game, being a Sunday it was not easy to get replacement tights, the Tournament Director refused to compromise.
So much for FIH regulations.
Looking at the registration forms submitted by the teams, one will be forgiven that they are at a "kampung" level tournament as many states did not submit their registration with the prescribed forms sent out by the MHC. But the fault lies more with MHC as they have two staff in Kuantan yet they did not deem it fit to key in the names into a standard type form so that it will look neat and in accordance with the FIH level advocated by the Tournament Director.
So much for FIH regulations.
The Tournament Director insists that the registration numbers ( in other words the jersey numbers) be limited to 1-18 for the Razak Cup. But in the FIH regulations it is clearly stated that registration numbers is from 1-32.
So much for FIH regulations.
There is one main sponsor for the Tun Razak Cup, who contributed RM150,000 in cash and another RM15,000 in kind. Yet another sponsor is given prominence and the beauty of it is that Pahang HA who are rightfully the organisors of the Razak Cup were not given the responsibility of putting up the advertising banners as the MHC saw it fit to give the responsibility of producing and putting up the advertising banners to a company associated with the other sponsor. And ironically the advert of MILO was removed.
So much for the ability of MHC.
Oh yes, if you were hoping for the results of the matches, as to who scored and who won, sorry but that information was not provided by the Tournament Director to the Medai Room. And why bother right since there was a Media Consultant appointed, in the words of the MHC Secretary Tuan Haji Mohd Johari Aziz and it is they that are to provide such services to the media and fans.
So much for the ability of MHC.
