The last I checked, the abbreviation MHC stood for Malaysian Hockey Confederation and it was a body that comprised of 14 state affiliates with Armed Forces and the Royal Malaysian Police.
MHC comprised of a long list of 'elected' office bearers, a total of 14, with 8 appointed members, and add that to the 32 state representatives, a huge number of 54 make up the MHC.
However with the exception of two, none were present at the final of the Division Two which took place at the National Hockey Stadium.
There was a feast prepared, fit for kings in the VIP room and that prompted the blogger to call some of the Vice Presidents and ask why they could not spare time and acknowledge the future of Malaysian Hockey strutting their stuff on the eight day of the lunar calendar.
And the answer I received was shocking, none of them knew about the final, with some saying they only read about it in the media. And all of them said they never received an invite from the Secretariat.
While we will argue about them waiting for an invite at another time, the ironic part is that the MHC, this in a whole, was and has been kept in the dark about such an event. And what was more fascinating was the fact that the main sponsor was not invited as well.
And this brings to the next issue, why was there no prize presentation ceremony? Rightfully and through precedent the medal ceremony is held after the final, but this was not the case.
The blame lies squarely on the Competitions Committee who should realize that these youngsters would have wanted to bask in the limelight, even for a few minutes on national Telly or with medals around their neck, pictures of which splurged on the national dailies the following day.
Even parents present at the final felt bad for their kids as the empty VIP stands showed the lack of interest from the office bearers.
Wonder if things would have been different had the President of MHC attended the final. No prizes for guessing the hordes of personalities lining up the staircases sticking their necks out to ensure he sees that they have hockey interest at heart.
Alas we can only write and lament about it, cos they have a legitimate excuse, they had no knowledge of the final and received no invite.
