BOYCOTT AVERTED

Some players of Hindu faith playing in the MHL contemplated boycotting the MHL quarterfinals scheduled to be played on January 30 at it was on Thaipusam Day.

MHF obviously had not put on their thinking caps when they listed January 30 as the day the first leg semi finals were scheduled to be played, to accommodate live telecast.

Teams in the MHL objected to playing the quarter finals back to back, on January 30 and January 31 and the reaction from the MHF Secretary was it was too late to change the fixtures and that the teams should have raised this issue earlier.

This is a multi racial country and hence all religions should be respected Mr. Secretary. MHF opted not to play MHL matches on Dec 25 and Dec 26 due to Christmas but even the BPL was played on Boxing Day.

Now it is learnt that MHF has changed the dates of the quarterfinals and no matches will be played on January 30. Instead the quarterfinals will now be played on January 29 and January 31, thus allowing players to fulfill their religious obligations and teams get a day rest in between.

Let's take the goodwill further MHF, reschedule the semi finals as well to give the teams a break, instead of playing on February 5 and 6, why not give teams a week break in between the two leg semi finals and play on Feb 6 and Feb 12.

Move the final scheduled for Feb 12 to the following weekend, February 20, so that Chinese New Year and Valentines Day can be celebrated by all.

After all we are not going to the World Cup, unless Munianday and Kandasamy are...

KUMAR THE OBVIOUS CHOICE LAH

Kumar with Kelvinder at the end of the world, Invercargil

UPDATE

Received the following comment from S. Kuhan, former national skipper after the story below was published.

S.Kumar, by a mile is the clear choice for the AHF award. He has been clearly the most consistent player in the team for a good 3 years. Although he has had a difficult career, having been no. 2 to both Nasihin and Roslan over the years which is never easy, he has always been a person who gave it all in training and his dedication and determination has finally paid off.

Having being nominated the best goal keeper in recent major tournaments, not forgetting praises from Ric Charlesworth, head coach of the Aussies and Paul Lissek , former national coach, he certainly should be the front runner to be nominated.

The only setback for him, which seems to be haunting him is he hasn’t had the opportunity to play in the Olympics and the World Cup. The other players in the team should look up to him as a role model as he has set such high standards.

Well done Kumar. Keep up the good work and your efforts will rewarded.

Original Posting

It is reliably learnt that the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) "forgot" about nominating players for the annual AHF Awards that closed on December 28.

This blog attempted to seek information as to who was nominated by MHF and MWHA and it was only then that efforts were being made to seek consensus as to which player should be nominated by MHF. Phone calls were made and at the same time excuses cooked up, even to the extent of telling certain officials that the closing date was on December 31.

And the best excuse was MHC could not complete the list as the MWHA Secretary was on holiday in India.

Last minute deals are ofyen heard when seeking cheap fares on flights in Wurope, with one website even named Last Minute Deals.

In Malaysia though that honour should go to the MHC Secretary for not being able to handle a simple matter such as this. And he together with the MHF Deputy President harbour hopes oftaking over AHF in 2011, a pact drawn up with some Pakistani officials on the sidelines of the Junior World Cup in JB/Singapore.

Well since it is obvious that MHF/MHC officials cannot think properly (maybe due to their year long holiday mood), this blog proposes that goalkeeper S. Kumar be nominated for the award. He is the obvious choice, a consistent performer at international stage and even Ric Charlesworth paid tribute to him by saying that Kumar was one of the best, if not the best goalkeeper in the world.

See how easy it is to nominate a player, you do not need a Havard/Oxford degree to figure this out.

TALKING COCK

The foreign coach saga has been on the agenda for MHF for the past one year, and after this blog had revealed that the candidate MHF had in mind was Roelant Oltmans, the propoganda machinery of MHF went into overdrive, while some were unusually quiet, the some officials used other means to push their case to be considered as coaches, many a time by undermining others with tales from the graves. Sp desperate were these personalities that they even went on to tell lies in order to be in the good books of the MHF President, continuing to mis-lead him as they have done for the past one year.

After the December 13 meeting in Penang, the MHF Secretary had gone on record to say that three names will be handed over to the MHF Coaching Committee to be considered as the next Malaysian national team coach.

Funny though as when met three days before Christmas, the MHF Coaching Chairman Dr. Balbir Singh was dumbfounded when asked when the Coaching Committee was to meet to discuss the three names.

"I am unaware of this hence I am unable to provide you with any information. We shall be having a Coaching Committee meeting soon. Sorry but since I was not at the meeting in Penang i an not able to say anything on this," was the response of Dr. Balbir.

Next came the revelation of this blog on the situation surrounding the contracts of the local coaches, Tai Beng Hai and Nor Saiful Zaini. NSC Director General had, just a day before Christmas, revealed that MHF had yet to consult them on the contractual issue of the duo, or any other local coach MHF intended to employ.

Once again the MHF Secretary went on record to say that they were seeking a meeting with NSC before December 31to discuss the issue. Today is December 30 and everyone knows that majority of the government officails go on leave at the end of the year. So really what is the MHF Secretary talking about?

it all boils down to incompetence of the part of the MHF administration and this has put MHF in bad light. Digging one hole to cover another seems to be the norm as is the case of talking cock all the time.

Wonder why the MHF Gestapo unit has not snooped at the Tun Razak Stadium to checked on national coaches hard at work, not talking cock here....

MHF SILENT

The National Sports Council have yet to hear anything from the Malaysian Hockey Federation with regards to the plan to hire Dutchman Roelant Oltmans as the National Coach.

And contrary to what has been reported, NSC has already informed MHF on just how much they are willing to commit with regards to the salaries for the former Pakistan and Dutch coach.

A MHF official had gone on record to say that MHF were unable to make a decision with regards to hiring Oltmans as NSC Director General Dato Zolkples Embong had not attended the Management Committee Meeting held on December 13 in Penang as he was away for the SEA Games.

"We have already discussed the appointment and as so far as NSC are concerned we have made a commitment to a certain amount of money to hire the coach," said Dato Zolkples when contacted by this blog last night .

"So really it will be for MHF to determine if they want to go ahead with this appointment as NSC can only assist and have no direct say with regards to the candidate."

"As far as I know MHF has yet to revert to us if the deal has gone through and we are in the dark as everyone else."

Zolkples added that MHF has also yet to revert to NSC on the renewal of contracts for local coaches. It is learnt that the contracts of Tai Beng Hai and Nor Saiful Zaini will expire on December 31.

"I am not aware of any request made to extend their contracts," said Zolkples.

"As far as I know there was a discussion with regards to having two local coaches to assist Oltmans. So far the names have not been forwarded to NSC and we will await for them to decide on this matter.

EX AND AXED

Though the two gentlemen have served Malaysian hockey, it was contrasting manner in which they were treated that is of Interest.

Tuan Haji Johari Aziz was appointed as the National Juniors Manager at a time the team was in doldrums.

Eventually the juniors ended up in 12th position in the 20 team event and Johari presented his report to MHF in June.

In is report Johari had raised the issue of long periods of centralised training were ineffective in the current times, but MHF just sat in it, ignoring the findings.

However Johari was thanked for his role as Team Manager after presenting his report at the MHF Management Committee meeting.

Hence Johary was the EX national juniors manager.

Fast forward to December and George Koshy ends his term as National Team Manager on December 31.

Having last managed the team to the World Cup Qualifiers and being a manager for well over a year, the views of Koshy were never sought when MHF and NSC opted to go foreign in their search for a coach.

And to rub salt to the wound, MHF did not even invite him to the Management Committee meeting held in Penang on December 13.

On top of that the MHF Secretariat did not have the decency to tell Koshy that his coach Tai Beng Hai had submitted a report just three days before the meeting.

It was clear that MHF did not appreciate the sacrifices of Koshy enough to thank him for services rendered.

Hence Koshy is now the AXED National Team Manager.

STARTLING AND SHOCKING

Having spoken to some senior players who were at the World Cup Qualifiers, I am amazed that majority of them are not happy with the decisions of MHF. Await what they are unhappy about in a day or two, Merry Christmas.

WHAT A SHAM

I would like to ask MHF officials to have their kids stand in the rain for two hours and not provide them with raincoats.

This was the scenario of the so called new look MHL which I have rightfully renamed the circus .

The poor chap in the picture as well as the rest of the ball pickers during the KL Hockey Club v TNB match at Tun Razak Stadium had to endure the match in a steady down pour and MHF could not provide them with a RM5 ringgit raincoat.

Luckly the match was not live as then the rest of Malaysia would have witnessed this inhuman act. But only 37 members of the public saw it.

There was something like 197 persons at the stadium but take away 120 being players and officials of the other four teams and around 20 odd MHF officials or Technical Officials plus parents and families that will make up another 20 persons so that leaves it at 37 fans.