Getting facts wrong especially when not well versed with the subject matter seems to be the norm when it comes to hockey in the country.
For Malaysian Hockey Confederation Senior vice-president S. Shamala said in The Star newspaper last week that although the second round of the World League for women would feature stronger teams, “Malaysia stand a good chance of qualifying for the third round as eight out the 10 teams will move on”.
“So Malaysia have a chance to make it to the third round. The national team just need to beat two teams to finish among the top eight to feature in the next round,” she said.
“We stand a chance to beat teams like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in the second round. We thrashed Kazakhstan 11-1 in the first round in Kuantan and we defeated Azerbaijan 2-1 in the Indira Gandhi tournament in New Delhi in 2007.”
In actual fact the FIH website clearly states the following:
That there will be FOUR second round competitions as follows:
18-24 Feb - New Delhi ( India plus 5 other teams)
18-24 Feb - Rio (Brazil, Chile, USA and 3 other teams)
25 Feb - 3 March - Valencia - ( Spain and 5 other teams)
25 Feb - 3 March - TBA - (Host plus 5 other teams)
- Round 2 will be regional and generally cover more than one continent. There will be four Round 2 tournaments with six teams each. The format will be a single pool Round Robin.
- Round 3 - Semi-Final will be global. There will be two Round 3 tournaments with eight teams each. These tournaments will feature two pools of four teams and will have placement games following the Round Robin.
- Round 4 - Final will be one global tournament with the top eight teams with the same tournament format as in Round 3.
So to make it to Round 3, teams will have to finish amongst the top two in each of the four round two events. How did the Senior Vice President deduce that only 10 teams in second round and 8 will qualify when FIH calendar states otherwise?
When dealing with MHC, I have learnt that personalities will say anything, without checking facts as evident above. But that never seems to surprise me any longer. Where the wind sways is the way to go.
