Thursday, July 11, 2013

REVS NEEDS MORE TIME, BUT LIKELY TO LEAVE

Having led Malaysia to a creditable fifth placing in the World Hockey League, national coach Paul Revington has yet to make up his mind if he is to continue coaching the national team.

Although early indications were positive that the 39 year old South African was going to stay and coach the team in the Asia Cup next month, it is learnt that recent developments have forced a rethink by Revs.

And he is only expected to make a final decision next week, and it looks more then likely Revs will be parting ways with the Malaysian Hockey Confederation.

Malaysia has a fantastic reputation of driving out good coaches with astute politics both with the hockey fraternity and a government agency.

The likes of Terry Walsh, Volker Knapp and Paul Lissek have all undergone this superb phenomena that can only be matched by the likes of India and Pakistan.

It is learnt that some officials are keen to see Revs go and from their recent remarks in some papers, they have made snide remarks belittling the efforts of Revs.

What these so called hockey "minded" personalities fail to realize is Revs coached the team to finish above two teams ranked higher then Malaysia, I.e Pakistan who are fifth and South Africa who are 12th in the FIH Rankings.

Another issue is the fact that Malaysia lacks quality international matches, and as an indication, in 1998 Malaysia played 52 international matches within a space of 8 months prior to the Commonwealth Games.

And for those who may not know this, the original Harimau Muda, formed in 2005 played a total of 65 matches in one year under the tutelage of Dato K. Rajagobal, and after that played in the Premier League of MSL.

And look at MHC, have they managed to arrange any attachment programs and managed to "sell" our players to play in overseas leagues? Tengku Abdullah the MHC President has time and again stressed on this, but has anyone got off their butts to make it happen?

Frankly Revs should just pack up his bags and leave. The Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin promised Revs that he will personally look into his grouses but it has been lip service so far. As for the NSC DG, least said is best for since March an issue was raised but he had to protect his favorites.

But the straw that broke the camels back is that some officials have already been scouting overseas for a replacement for Revs. It is a small world, and Ho matter how astute you are in hockey politics, we have been confirmed as runners up in the best comedy act, second only to India who are the masters.