WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN

There once was a magical place that when it rains, a thousand islands emerge from a sea of green. But this is no paradise.

It is the venue for hockey for this year's Sukma. Yes you guessed it right, it is the hockey stadium at Bukit Serindit Malacca, where the MHL matches were held on January 23.

Take a look at the islands that appear, and those will are worrying as this pitch was re-laid barely a year ago. There are many stories with regards to that, even to the extent of unpaid loans. But the picture paints a thousand words.

INSAFI TURN AROUND

We have been informed of a turn around by Nur Insafi who have now agreed to play the quarterfinal matches in KL.

However MHF had sent out an email with only 3 quarterfinals listed and later they sent out another email, such fickle mindedness from Insafi and MHF.

Makes the clown act all the more real.

CLOWN ACT

Update: Nur Insafi await decision of MHF with regards to request to play match in USM. They have yet to be notified in writing by MHF that their appeal has been rejected. (as of 11.30am)

The MHL circus delivered the coup de grace on the only non Klang Valley team when the hastily assembled Technical Committee of MHL decided to accept the withdrawal of Nur Insafi from the knockout stages.

The bone of contention was Nur Insafi requesting to play one leg of their last eight clash at home in Penang, but the jester in the kings court refused to budge and insisted that three meetings were held and no objections was raised.

But what the jester failed to reveal was Nur Insafi was not represented at the meetings and that the fixtures sent out never stated the venue but merely the dates of the quarterfinals, and mind you the second leg was to be played on Thaipusam day, ie Jan 30.

The biggest lie was the refusal of the Sapura team manager who used Thaipusam as an excuse to justify his teams decision not to consider playing a leg in Penang.

Suddenly the Sapura manager wants to. champion the cause of the Hindu players in his team, using Thaipusam as an excuse when he was in the meetings that initially agreed to play matches on Thaipusam day.

So it's best not to avoid the issue and cover the incompetence of the jester in order to be in the good books. Winning a place in the semis by default does not augur well the very essence of sporting spirit was thrown out of the window by the Sapura manager.

The Technical Committee this blog is informed also decided to refer S. Tatchana to the Disciplinary Board for his indiscretion in the match between UniKL and Nur Insafi in Johor Baru two weeks ago.

Ironically the incident was milder then what happened in Penang but no action was taken.

The decision to refer him to the DB must be an after thought since the matches in JB took place on Jan 15 and 16, so Tatchana is probably paying the price for taking on some people in MHF.

Two wrongs do not make a right and MHF have shot themselves in the foot by making a decision based on emotions rather then common sense.

And why was the Competitions Committee decision to utilize local officials in matches in JB and Malacca not carried out ? Should the jester also have his day infront of the DB?

After all the jester is upset with this blog calling the MHL a circus. Would you call it any different with your clowning glory in refusing to allow Nur Insafi a fair chance?

The joke is on you.

PARGAT SLAMS KALMADI

Former India hockey captain Pargat Singh on Sunday slammed the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President, Suresh Kalmadi, by blaming the latter for making attempts to occupy Hockey India (HI) chief’s position.

Pargat blamed Kalmadi for the Indian hockey players’ recent revolt and termed him a ’sports mafia’.

Pargat said that it was because of such sports mafia that players go to the extent of revolting against the federation.

‘No player fancies a situation like a revolt but when you don’t get the parental touch from the federation, you probably have no other way. Kalmadi has messed up Indian hockey and is playing dirty games,’ Pargat told media persons in the conference held at Delhi’s Punjab Bhavan.

‘People like him (Kalmadi) don’t even bother about the country’s image. Even if the World Cup is shifted out of the country, they would not bat an eyelid,’ said Pargat and appreciated former Hockey chief K.P.S. Gill for his term

NUR INSAFI PULLOUT?

Nur Insafi are contemplating pulling out of the quarterfinal stage of the MHL if the Malaysian Hockey Federation are adamant to hold all the quarterfinal matches in Kuala Lumpur.

Team principal S. Tatchana said that MHF were being unreasonable by asking the Penang based team to play the two leg quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur.

"We should be allowed to play one leg of the quarterfinal in Penang," said Tatchana.

"Is this the MHL or KL League since MHF are insisting we play our matches in KL.

"This defeats the very principle MHF were advocating by holding preliminary round matches in Penang, JB and Malacca as they wanted to popularize the league.

"We have made the request bit MHF are not budging hence we will refuse to play the quarterfinals unless one leg is staged in Penang.

"Nur Insafi are the only team outside Klang Valley and one would expect MHF to be more considerate."

What irks Tatchana more is the fact that they have go pay for accomodation and transport for the knockout stage, and that will cost them a bomb as the team has to stay in KL for at least three nights.

And while all teams received transportation allowance and were provided with accommodation for matches in JB, Penang and Malacca, Nur Insafi had to pay their own for two out of the four trips to KL for the preliminary round matches.

"That is downright unfair as the other teams get their expenses covered each time they play outside KL", said Tatchana.

"Why are we given RM2,500 for transport while teams who went to Penang were given RM3,000?

"I am just fed up with the double standards and will withdraw from the knockout stage as we have been unfairly treated by MHF

"The consequences could lead to Nur Insafi being banned, but we can live with that as it has become pointless playing in the MHL if it is run unprofessionally."

WHAT ON EARTH ARE MHF UP TO?

That image was taken from the MHF website on this particular page

http://www.malaysiahockey.com.my/organazationchart

Nevermind the fact that the MHF website is not updated since May 2009. But the fact that they have listed down the name of the late S. Satgunam as Hon. Secretary of MHF in their organisational chart is downright disrespectul to the family of Satgunam. For those who may not know, Satgunam was one of the more distinguished, efficient, honest, dedicated and sincere personalties to have asumed office in the MHF over the past few decades.

It is an error that shows the true capabilities of those helming the MHF as they have listed the MHF Deputy President lower in heirachy then the Vice Presidents. The fact that the organisational chart has HRH Tengku Abdullah as President shows that this chart was only done after the MHF BGM in 2008.

So someone in MHF has to be held responsible. Nevermind the fact that the website is outdated, but such blatant disregard and mistake is an insult to the memory of the late S. Satgunam.

INTERESTING TALES AT TWO BUKITS

It may well be a Sunday for many of us, but there was a hive of activity in as so far as the Malaysian Hockey Federation were concerned.

Two meetings were held in Bukit Jalil, while at Bukit Persekutuan, a MHF official virtually took the whole of Malaysia for a ride when he went live on air on Astro Awani.

At the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, the MHF Coaching Committee met and a list of coaches was presented to the members by the Chairman Dr. Balbir Singh for consideration to fill up the coaching positions of the various teams, from the Senior National Team, National Juniors and National Under 16.

Amongst the names of the list were Tai Beng Hai, Nor Saiful Zaini, S. Vellapan, S. Prakash, Wallace Tan, Stephen van Huizen, Colin Sta Maria and K. Rajan. Conspicously missing was the name of K. Dharmaraj while Sarjit Singh whose name was on the list asked to be left out.

But the MHF Coaching Committee decided not to name the coaches as they were not presented with the reports of the coaches of the various teams in 2009 and hence requested that they be furnished with reports to consider and evaluate the ability of the current coaches of the teams before preparing a list for the consideration of the MHF Council.

The MHF Coaching Committee meeting ended at around 2.00pm and an hour later the MHF Team Management Committee commenced their deliberations at the National Sports Council, a stone throw away.

And it is here that the situation gets more confusing, read on and try to get a grasp of things. This Committee, the legality of which has been the subject of debate since it was formed a year ago, was chaired by MHF Deputy President Nur Azmi Ahmad.

They decided to name six coaches for the various teams, somethng that the MHF Coaching Committee had deferred to do. The six named are Tai Beng Hai and Stephen van Huizen for the Senior Team, K. Dharmaraj, Nor Azlan Bakar, K. Gobinathan for the National Juniors while Nor Saiful Zaini was named for the National Under 16 Team.

Usurping the powers of another Committee? Well it gets more interesting as these six names have to be deliberated by the MHF Coaching Committee this Tuesday. So how is it that a Sub Committee, whose terms of reference do not exist in the first place, name coaches and order another Sub-Committee to hold a meeting to endorse the list so that it can be presented to the MHF Management Committee that is to meet in Malacca on January 23?

And yes, before I forget, the Committee, meaning the Team Management Committee, has left it to the President, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, to determine if MHF is to go ahead with the hiring of Dutchman Roelant Oltmans as a Coach or as a Consultant. Either way all these coaches are to report t Oltmans, should he be hired, a decision which will be made by January 23.

Next came the issue of appointing the Team Managers of the various teams and here is something for readers to ponder.

For the Senior Team, George Koshy and Ow Soon Kooi have been named as Team Managers while for the National Juniors, the task will be handled by Mirnawan Nawawi and M.Gobinathan. Johari Abd Aziz is the sole name for the National Under 16 team.

So both the Senior and Junior teams will have two team managers, wow! How politically correct can you be by doing this. Ever consider a career in real politics Mr. Chairman?

Next we move to the studios of Astro Awani where Nur Azmi came under the microscope during the live interview.

When asked if what were the MHF priority, the Commonwealth Games as opposed to Asian Games, Nur Azmi correctly stated that it was Asian Games. But when confronted with the mistaks of 2006 where Malaysia won bronze in Melbourne but went on to play badly in the World Cup Qualifiers, he started blabbering about the 2006 Asian Games instead.

And the icing on the cake was when he was asked about joint accountability if the team fails at the Asian Games since MHF wanted a foreign coach, the Deputy President side stepped it by saying the coach will be sacked if he fails.

Next stop - Tuesday as we await for more surprises from the Standing Committee of the Coaching Committee. And then on it will be Malacca this Saturday.