It is said that two national hockey tournaments have to be called off and it had to be related to money, or the lack of it.
The Raja Noora Ashikin Cup, which is akin to the men's version of the Tun Razak Cup was not held in April and is said to have been moved to June.
And the National Under 21 Tournament, scheduled for May 21 to May 30 has suffered the same fate, postponed to a yet to be determined date.
What is most ironic is that both the events were pencilled in the MHC Calendar that was released last December and the failure to hold these two tournaments as scheduled is indeed a big blow to the MHC Competitions Committee.
No one within the MHC was prepared to talk on the reasons as to why the two tournaments have been wiped off the radar and the states too are bewildered on such an action as they were only notified today about the Under 21 postponement.
It is learnt that the state affiliates have turned down the hosting job for national tournaments as the MHC did not want to increase the hosting fee of RM35,000 per tournament. Although states will receive RM70,000 as hosting fee, they will need to host both the men's and women's tournaments, thus placing a severe financial burden on the states.
This is due to the fact that the cost of paying allowances, transportation and accommodation for tournament officials alone come to RM28,000 and the balance of RM7,000 is hardly enough to cover stadium rental and providing of refreshments as well as organizational costs.
Thus states declined to bid for hosting of tournaments and even though Perlis had initially bid for the National Under 21 Tournament, they pulled out after the increase in subsidies for hosting was rejected at the recent MHC Council Meeting.
With problems even arising with the host broadcaster in the telecast of matches in the ongoing TNBMHL, the future looks bleak unless concrete decisions are made to salvage the Organising of such tournaments so as to keep hockey relevant in the country.
Even the MHL has not seen any changes, supposedly to increase its popularity, despite the competition being keener.
The fact that the Competitions Committee opted not to include the 45 secon regulation for penalty corners when FIH has indicated that the rule will be included in the World League Semis in June, the decision could prove costly to our national team.
But alas when egos take precedence then working together, wither Malaysian Hockey....
