CLOSELY GUARDED

Update: I was rebuked for using the word unfriendly by one of the coaches and said that the correct word was being professional. One can be professional yet project a friendly outlook. And it is not as if it is the state secrets we are after. Well the parting words were "friendship on line", I live by the sword and am willing to die by the sword is my response.

Perhaps stung by the remarks from the Malaysian Hockey Federation President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah the other day on the performances of the national players in the ongoing Tun Razak Cup, both the coaches Stephen van Huizen and Tai Beng Hai seem to evade questions regarding the national team.

Currently there are 25 players in the national training squad and the two coaches were given the option of adding another 5 players into the squad by the MHF and NSC. And the Tun Razak Cup was to be used as a platform to identify these five players.

But one could probably get money out from Bank Negara rather then get these two coaches to say something if any player had caught their eye. All one could get out of them was that the are evaluating players and MHF will announce the list.

Either these two have been gagged by MHF or they are just being unfriendly.

MY DOORS ARE OPEN

Rather then being upset by the statement made by former national skipper and assistant coach Nor Saiful Zaini, MHF President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah was more disappointed that he had not made use of the proper channels to voice his opinion.

While respecting that Saiful was entitled to his opinion on matters with regards to how he perceived hockey in the country, Tengku Abdullah reminded Saiful that he too was part of the national team set-up for a whole year and could have used that period to correct any shortcomings within the national team.

"Yes I have read the statement made by Saiful and he is entitled to his opinion, which is personal and not reflective of any organisation," said Tengku Abdullah when met after witnessing the Negeri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur match in Kuantan.

"He was part of the national team and should have corrected things if he felt so strongly about it but what has he done when he had the opportunity.

"Though they are his personal views, I have advocated an open door policy in MHF and be it Saiful or anyone else can bring proposals on how to improve our hockey standards to me directly. I am all ears if the ideas generated can help us boost our hockey standards.

"On the question of development, or rather the lack of it raised by Saiful, let me assure him that we have the plans in place and I shall reveal everything after our Council meeting this Saturday.

"We may not have achieved our desired improvement levels but who is there to deny that we have done well in some areas. I had made it clear that we need time to correct and improve things and we are on the right track."

AM WORRIED, SAYS TENGKU ABDULLAH

Not one to mince his words, Malaysian Hockey Federation President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah was being honest when he said that the performances of the national players in the ongoing Tun Razak Cup was alarming.

Having watched the Kuala Lumpur against Negri Sembilan match at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium, Tengku Abdullah said that he was concerned with the performances of the national players, after this Blogger posed him a question with regards to the lack of international matches for the national team since the World Cup Qualifiers last November in Invercargill.

" Honestly I am not too happy with the performances of the national players," said Tengku Abdullah after witnessing KL, with six national players in their ranks, struggle against a Negri side that fielded mostly veterans with only three national players.

"It is cause for concern as the players seem to be struggling and not playing to their ability. As for the lack of international matches after the qualifiers, this is something that I have told the team to address and I will announce the plans after the Council meeting on Saturday," said Tengku Abdullah.

KL, with six national players in their lineup struggled to stamp their class over Negri, where veterans Suhaimi Ibrahim, Chairil Anwar Abd Aziz and S.Kuhan were in their element throughout the match.

The MHF President was also honest enough to admit that the team will have it tough in the Asian Games to book an automatic spot in the 2012 London Olympics.

"I know that it will be tough and admit that an automatic spot will be difficult to come by," said Tengku Abdullah.

Asked if MHF was going to have a contingency plan, by requesting to host one of the Olympic Qualifiers scheduled for early 2012, Tengku Abdullah was coy about it, preferring to reveal any such plan after the meeting on Saturday.

ROYAL INTERVENTION

The MHF President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah knows more about hockey then some of his officials.

For teams in the Razak Cup had complained about playing matches at the unearthly hour of 3.00pm.

The MHF officials did nothing about it, as usual, and the Tournament Director T. Paramalingam said he had no powers to change the fixtures.

But all that changed on Sunday night at the official dinner and Tengku Mahkota instructed that the matches from Tuesday be scheduled for 4.00pm, 6.00pm and 8.00pm with Division Two to start at 3.30 and 5.30.

Now that was not difficult to do right, all it took was commonsense, but sadly that is lacking these days.

Maybe now TM has to re-look the idea of playing the Razak Cup in a zonal format next year, but we will dwell on this later.

THIRD CLASS SAYS NOR SAIFUL ZAINI

UPDATE: READ WHAT MHF PRESIDENT HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE THIRD CLASS REMARK ON WEDNESDAY

Kita kelas dunia ketiga - Nor Saiful

Oleh MOHAMMAD YASIR JAAFAR

sukan@utusan.com.my

TELUK KEMANG - Masalah disiplin serta ketiadaan program pembangunan yang komprehensif di kalangan pemain disifatkan sebagai punca kemerosotan prestasi skuad hoki kebangsaan.

Pendedahan ini dibuat oleh bekas kapten pasukan hoki kebangsaan, Nor Saiful Zaini yang kecewa dengan prestasi hambar skuad hoki kebangsaan ketika ditemui Utusan Malaysia di sini, semalam.

Menurut beliau, skuad hoki kebangsaan masa kini perlu berubah jika ingin meningkatkan standard dan prestasi mereka di peringkat antarabangsa.

''Dari pemerhatian saya, skuad hoki kebangsaan kini boleh dilabelkan sebagai pasukan kelas dunia ketiga berbanding Korea Selatan yang semakin jauh meningkat prestasinya.

''Ini semua berpunca daripada pembangunan dan cara latihan serta asuhan yang diberikan kepada pemain-pemain baru masa kini selain masalah disiplin yang menghantui pemain," katanya ketika ditemui di Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan (SRK) Kg. Gelam di sini.

Jelasnya, disiplin pemain kebangsaan yang kian longgar masa kini secara tidak langsung menyebabkan mereka boleh dianggap pemain yang hebat di tanah air, tetapi bukan di peringat antarabangsa.

''Mereka (pemain kebangsaan) boleh dianggap hebat di kalangan pemain tempatan tetapi bukan jenis pemain yang boleh memberikan saingan di peringkat antarabangsa," tegasnya.

Saiful yang juga merupakan ketua jurulatih skuad hoki Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) menjelaskan, perubahan drastik perlu dilakukan segera demi membangunkan semula kegemilangan skuad kebangsaan dalam arena sukan hoki.

''Untuk mengatasi masalah ini, saya berpendapat Malaysia perlu mewujudkan program intensif yang khusus dalam membangunkan pelapis bukan sahaja yang berbakat, malah mempunyai disiplin tinggi ke arah melahirkan pemain yang sempurna dari segi mental dan fizikal.

''Kita seharusnya mempunyai satu program khas dalam membangunkan pemain berumur 13 hingga 18 tahun khusus untuk diserapkan ke pasukan kebangsaan," ujarnya.

Diminta mengulas masalah disiplin yang melanda pemain kebangsaan, Saiful memberitahu, disiplin pemain negara jauh ketinggalan jika ingin dibandingkan dengan negara lain.

''Sebagai contoh mudah, saya pernah mengenali seorang pemain hoki Korea yang juga merupakan pemain ketiga terbaik dunia. Namun, dia telah digantung setahun untuk mewakili skuad negaranya ekoran ditangkap merokok.

''Ini menunjukkan betapa ketatnya disiplin pemain luar negara walaupun seseorang itu dianggap sebagai bintang dan hebat. Bukan seperti pemain kita sekotak pun boleh hisap dan masih boleh mewakili negara," katanya dalam nada hampa.

THE OLTMANS SAGA

Sometime in February, the National Sports Council Director General Dato Zolkples Embong went on record to say that Malaysian hockey will secure the services of former Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans in May, in time for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

However the Malaysian Hockey Federation opted to keep quiet and the Deputy President Nur Azmi Ahmad started re-writing the script as he told the media that MHF were still in discussions with Oltmans and some other foreign coaches, so in a way he denied the statement made by Zolkples, stopping short of calling the NSC DG a liar.

Moving forward to March, and Nur Azmi was part of the delegation that went to New Delhi for the World Cup to discuss terms with Oltmans. And upon his return Azmi went on record to say that Oltmans will, if the terms are agreed upon, will report for duty on June 1.

Effectively Oltmans, it is learnt, will be in Ipoh during the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, expenses paid for by MHF, to witness the tournament and asses the Malaysian team. So there you have it, the script as written by the MHF Deputy President.

Now lets look at things in a different perspective. Oltmans will have barely five months to whip our team into potential gold medalists for the 2010 Asian Games which will assure us of a place in the 2012 London Olympics. Failing which Malaysia would have to go through the qualifiers which most likely will be held in the first quarter of 2012.

Meaning at a rate of RM50,000 per month, Malaysia will have to fork out something in the region of RM1.1 million in terms of salary, minus other perks to have in place a coach who will take us to a qualifier, something others have done in the past.

Another perspective is what will MHF do if the current coaches, Stephen van Huizen and Tai Beng Hai take Malaysia to the champions spot in the Azlan Shah Cup, something Malaysia has failed to do, be it with local or foreign coaches. What will MHF do then? Still get Olmans on board or this time decide that Malaysians are better suited for the job?

The entire planning is in shambles as the national team last played an international match at Invercargill in November last year. That is almost six months without any international match for a team that aspires to win gold in China later this year.

It is not impossible though as Malaysian players can raise their game as evident by the 2002 Busan Asian Games team that went on to win the bronze medal despite many players calling it quits after the 2002 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

So the million dollar question, since that is what we could end up coughing should we fail to make it to London, will most likely be answered at the MHF Council Meeting scheduled to be held at 2.00pm on April 3 in Kuala Lumpur.

And after which hopefully the MHF Deputy President will stop his 18 month drama of getting a foreign coach, something he messed up in the first place in Bangkok in December 2008.

WILL LISSEK COACH THE GREEN SHIRTS?

Pakistan had almost roped in Paul Lissek to mastermind their hockey team’s turnaround after the World Cup debacle but the multiple bomb blasts in Lahore on March 12 forced the famed German coach to have second thoughts about taking up an assignment in what is a strife-hit country.

Sources told ‘The News’ on Wednesday that the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had sounded out Lissek during the World Cup held in New Delhi from Feb 28-March 13. According to details, PHF secretary Asif Bajwa met with Lissek on the sidelines of the World Cup, where Pakistan slumped to a catastrophic last-place finish.

Bajwa offered Lissek to head Pakistan’s coaching staff and help the former world champions prepare for several major international events like the Asian Games this year in China and the 2012 Olympics in London.

Lissek, who masterminded Germany’s rise as one of the most successful hockey nations during a stint that lasted for almost a decade, was initially reluctant but later conveyed his willingness to take over as Pakistan’s head coach. This happened just a few days before the March 12 blasts in Lahore that made headlines around the world.

“Lissek started having second thoughts about working in Pakistan after what happened in Lahore,” said the source. “He knew that Lahore is the headquarters of Pakistan hockey and as national coach he will have to stay there a lot,” stressed the source.

However, the source added that Lissek is still mulling over the option and is expected to tell the PHF about his decision on the offer within the next few days.

“Lissek is still very much the favourite to take over as Pakistan’s coach,” said the source. “He has always been keen to be a part of Pakistan hockey and now that he is not attached to any team on a long-term basis, Lissek is seriously considering the PHF offer. He would have said yes after the World Cup but is now having second thoughts because of the security concerns.”

Pakistan have had foreign sports coaches in the past though Geoff Lawson, the former Pakistan coach, was the last one to come and work here. His tenure ended acrimoniously in 2008 when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked him.

Apart from Lissek, the PHF is also targeting an Australian coach but according to sources he is not as high-profile as the legendary German. Australia’s two most high-profile coaches — Ric Charlesworth and Terry Walsh — are already associated with Australia and USA respectively.

The PHF top brass is interested in Lissek because he is supposed to be the best coach around when it comes to improving a team’s defence. Even Charlesworth was compelled to hire Lissek as his consultant ahead of the World Cup and according to experts his move paid off when the Aussies tamed Germany in the final to regain the world title in the Indian capital earlier this month.

Lissek, known as the ‘mathematician’ in world hockey circles, helped the Aussies unlock the defensive Germans, who had denied them the title in the previous two editions of the World Cup.

He served as Malaysia’s head coach for several years and almost signed a contract to work with India a couple of years back.

Pakistan have to hire a coach as soon as possible as they are without a team management and will need one when the Greenshirts feature in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh (Malaysia) from May 6-16. The PHF sacked the entire team management after the World Cup disaster.