CATCH 22 FOR TM

It was more then a month ago that the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) was dissolved and the Malaysian Women Hockey Association (MWHA) followed suit a week later. For historical significance, the dates were December 17 and December 23 respectively.

However checks with the Sports Commissioner's Office in early January revealed that neither body had sent in the official forms citing the dissolution and hence it was surprising that the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) was calling for entries for the Junior Hockey League that is already at its halfway stage.

And while one continues to ponder on the status of MHF and MWHA, hockey activities are ongoing, albeit through the respective bodies, though on paper the men's body have started calling themselves as MHC.

Which leave a question mark on the legality of actions being undertaken by both bodies. And with a player in the MHC-MILO-NSC Junior Hockey League being shown a red card, it will be interesting to see what action and the composition of the Disciplinary Board should the matter be referred to the DB.

Another interesting issue is on the composition of the MHC Council for besides the President and Deputy President, there will be a total of 12 Vice Presidents, with two being accorded the status of Senior Vice Presidents.

MWHA has already decided on their composition of officials and what is interesting is that they have nominated their Secretary, Prof Dr. S. Shamala as the Senior Vice President in the new MHC line up.

That move was undertaken as the MWHA was fully aware that the highly qualified Shamala, who is an elected member of the Asian Hockey Federation may be reduced to the Assistant Secretary position given the fact that the current MHF Secretary's relationship with Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the President of MHC. Thus MWHA has nominated a former player Nurfarha Hashim as the Assistant Secretary of MHC.

The other nominations from MWHA are Deputy President YM Raja Puan Sri Dato' Noora Ashikin bte Raja Abdullah, Vice Presidents (5): Jenniffer Williams, Maheswari Kanniah, Dato' Mary Ritchie, Nagula Sivasothy and Jeyadhevi Subramaniam.

For assistant treasurer MWHA has nominated Juriah Abdul Wahab Fenner while the two Independent Members Siti Patimah Hassan and Datin Noraini Jaafar.

It is learnt that Maninderjit together with Tengku Abdullah and influential Vice President Manjit Majid Abdullah held a discussion last Friday to discuss the composition of the 13 sub committees under MHC besides re-structuring the administration of the MHC office given that they two bodies will have a single administration.

Here is where the plot thickens as the likes of Manjit (coaching) Dato Nur Azmi Ahmad ( National Team Management), Dato Abdul Rahim Ariff (Competitions) and Ken Pereira (Development) hold vital committees which surely they will not be willing to let go.

The positions at sub committees at stake are Coaaching, Competitions, Development, Disciplinary, Finance, High Performance, Indoor, Legal and Special Projects, Marketing & Sponsorship, Medical, National Team Management Committee and Umpiring.

And the catch 22 situation for Tengku Abdullah will be the new MHC constitution that states - " Article 18.4.2 : Each Vice President shall be the Co-Chairman of at least one (1) Committee of MHC as decided by the Executive Board

FRAIL DEFENCE

Note: while other media may credit Razie for both goals, the lack of co-operation from team officials in Perth has made my task impossible as I have relied on information from hockey friends who watched the match and kept me abreast via SMS.

A defensive minded Malaysia were beaten 5-2 by Australia at the Perth Hockey Stadium in their second friendly match this evening.

Malaysia opted to have all their players in their own 25 for a large part of the match.

Perhaps the strategy adopted was to counter the strong Aussie side fielded by coach Ric Charlesworth.

Australia had the likes of three times FIH player of the year Jaime Dywer, Matt Ghodes, Christopher Cirello and Kieren Govers.

The team fielded was from a list of 28 Olympic hopefuls from their squad but they failed to get the better of a Malaysian side that opted for "parking the bus" in front of goal tactics.

Australia went ahead in the very first minute through Ghodes.

Although the Aussies were awarded penalty corners in the 17, 19 and 20th minutes, the combined efforts of Baljit Singh and Mohd Madzli Ikmar kept the score intact.

But that did not prevent the Australians for doubling their advantage via Simon Orchard.

Off Malaysia's first foray into the opponents semi circle they were awarded a penalty corner in the 23rd minute.

The attempt by Mohd Razie Abdul Rahim sailed into goal, deflected off a defenders stick.

Australia had another penalty corner but Baljit denied them a clear shot at goal and the halftime score stood at 2-1 in favour of Australia.

Dwyer made it 3-1 in the 44th minute before Ghodes scored his second and Australia's fourth in the 50th minute.

Liam de Young made it 5-1 in the 53rd minute but Malaysia reduced the deficit when Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin Tengku Jalil pounced on a penalty corner rebound in the 55th minute to reduce the deficit to 5-2.

DEFEAT AGAINST SECOND STRINGERS

Malaysia, as expected, lost 3-1 to Australia at the Perth Hockey Stadium, the first of their four match series against the hosts in preparation for the Olympic Qualifiers that will be held in Dublin in March.

However it was not the top Australian team that Malaysia lost against as the hosts fielded players from their Australian A side, which as a matter of fact comprises of players that are not amongst the top 28 currently preparing for the London Olympics.

Only four players that are in the squad of 28 players named by Australian coach Ric Charlesworth took the field against Malaysia. They are Eddie Ockenden, Rob Hammond, Matthew Swann and keeper Nathan Burgers.

It was Ockenden that gave Australia the lead before Malaysia equalized through Izwan Firdaus as the two teams were tied 1-1 at halftime.
Two goals by Tim Bates, in the 37th and 57th minutes sealed the win for the Australian A side and the next match is scheduled for tomorrow (Monday).

“Malaysia did relatively well in the match and they can only get better. It was a good performance and I expect them to improve in the coming matches,”
commented former Malaysian coach Paul Lissek who is now a consultant with the Australian squad.

“They created many goal scoring chances but failed to make them count. And although they had 3 penalty corners, they failed to make them count.”

While Malaysia are preparing against second rung players from Australia, Ireland who their biggest threats besides South Korea played two matches against Great Britain and came of with draws (1-1 and 2-2) in both clashes over the weekend.

Great Britain opened the scoring in the second minute when Barry Middleton tapped in at the back post from a by-line. Ireland drew level 7 minutes later with a Timothy Cockram drag flick.

Great Britain took the lead again in the 41st minute with a Simon Mantell goal from a penalty corner drag flick. Ireland piled on the pressure and were awarded a number of short corners but failed to take their opportunities and it was not until after the final hooter that they scored their equalising goal once again from a Timothy Cockram drag flick.

Going by statistics, Malaysia has a fairly decent chance of making it to the Olympics for the first time since Sydney 2000. South Korea who won silver in 2000 have played in 5 Olympics while Malaysia has played in 9, their last being in Sydney.

But it is pertinent to note that the last time Malaysia safely negotiated their way past an Olympic Qualifier was in 1999 in Japan and it has been two consecutive failures since then, 2004 in Madrid and 2008 in Japan.

And the script was the same for the World Cup as Malaysia made the 1998 World Cup on merit, making it through from the qualifiers they hosted in 1997.

While they played as hosts in the 2002 edition, Malaysia failed to make it to the 2006 German and 2010 New Delhi World Cups.

SAPURA CONTINUE WINNING STREAK

Sapura enhanced their position at the top of Division Two A when they defeated PHK-MSS Kelantan 6-0 in the MHC-MILO-NSC Junior Hockey League match at the KL Hockey Stadium this evening.

In Division One, SSTMI-Thunderbolts hammered Petaling Jaya Municipal Council 6-1 at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium in Johor Baru to consolidate their position at the top of the standings.

At the Ministry of Education Stadium, MBI-Anderson defeated Bukit Jalil Sports School Juniors 4-2.

 

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FIRST BLOOD TO AUSTRALIA

Australia defeated Malaysia 3-1 in the first of the four friendly matches played in Australia at the Perth Hockey Stadium this morning.

The solitary Malaysian goal was scored by Izwan Firdaus after the Aussies had taken a 1-0 lead. Two goals by Tim Bates in the second half sealed the win for the Aussies.

The two teams square off against each other at 5.30pm tomorrow at the same venue.

BIG WINS FOR SSTMI AND MBI

SSTMI-Thunderbolts won their third successive match in the MHC-MILO-NSC Junior Hockey League when they trounced Bukit Jalil Sports School Juniors 9-0 in a Division One match at the Ministry of Education Stadium in Pantai.

And in Ipoh, MBI-Anderson gave Tunku Besar Secondary School Tampin the "blues" on the newly laid blue pitch of the Sultan azlan Shah Stadium, winning 8-2.

Bukit Jalil Sports School meanwhile almost squandered a chance to back on the winning trail for they threw away a 3-0 halftime lead as Petaling Jaya City Council scored thrice to draw level but got the winner two minutes from time to win 4-3, at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

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OLAK SECURE SECOND WIN

Olak-PKT secured their second consecutive win in the Division Two B of MHC-MILO-NSC Junior Hockey League when they came back twice to defeat KL Sports School 3-2 at the KL Hockey Stadium this evening.

The match was called off five minutes from time but the result stood as per the tournament regulations governing rain affected matches.

 

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