BIG FIGHT LOOMING

The picture above tells us a lot about what is going on within the corridors of power of MHF. A big battle looms ahead of the MHF elections which will be held before the fasting month next year. The campaigning has started, but we shall leave it at that for the moment.

What is more interesting is that a RM3 million submission for development of hockey was made in Penang last Sunday. Wow hockey is big money these days, RM3 million for development, RM1.5 million for foreign coaches and not forgetting it was RM7 million for the MHL submitted by a company. More on these later, for a storm is brewing within MHF and I am gonna watch Storm Raiders for some sense while others start counting the billions of cents they will make.

RAW DEAL FOR LOCALS

When the dust settled after the MHF Management Committee meeting in Penang today, local coaches were dealt with two severe blows.

First the MHF has decided to proceed with securing the services of a foreign coach, thus leaving Tai Beng Hai as the 'interim' coach until the foreigner arrives.

And despite the high cost, and contrary to statements made by Dutchman Roelant Oltmans and his club Laren HC over the past two weeks, MHF has decided that the former Pakistani coach is their targetted foreigner to plot the rise of Malaysian hockey.

The key factor is funding, and with the NSC only willing to pay a fixed amount, MHF will yet again have to depend on its President Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah to source for the remainder, which is believed to be in the region of RM60,000 per month.

Thus the decision to hire Oltmans has been put on hold until the funding is sorted out as no senior NSC official was at the meeting in Penang.

Beng Hai, who has submitted his report for the World Cup Qualifiers contrary to what this blog had reported earlier, will thus be responsible to monitor the progress and scout players for the national team whose next assignment will not be until the AHF Champions Trophy next April.

Beng Hai will, if he accepts, be appointed as the assistant to the foreign coach in the new set-up. However nothing was discussed on the fate of the current assistant coach Nor Saiful Zaini Nasiruddin whose contract expires at the end of this month.

And the second blow, probably more devastating was the failure of the MHF Secretariat to put forward for discussion the appeal by local coaches who are in the national set-up to be allowed to coach club sides in the MHL.

We can reveal that at least one of the coaches submitted an appeal and the Coaching Committee was asked to deliberate on it and rightfully refused as appeals can only be determined by either the Management Committee or the Council.

The fact that this matter was not tabled in Penang shows the weakness in understanding the MHF Constitution and lends credibility to the notion that administratively MHF are still in shambles with the battle to control or being the king makers continue to rage on within the confines of the MHF brass.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

CONSPIRACY IN MHF?

It will be high noon drama when the MHF Management Committee sits down in Penang to discuss the future of Malaysian Hockey.

While some may say its a normal meeting, aided by the fact that notification of the meeting was via SMS with no formal agenda provided as of Friday to those attending the meeting, the fact of the matter is the direction of hockey in the country is set to be determined by some personalities that have hidden agendas.

Imagine this, the future of the national team is to be determined without even going through reports from the officials of the World Cup Qualifiers at Invercargil last month.

It is learnt that neither the Team Manager nor the Chief Coach have been invited for the meeting. And it is further believed that the duo have yet to submit written reports on the performance of the team at the Qualifiers.

A decision today without even reading the reports will only mean one thing, there was a conspiracy and this was set in motion sometime back.

If one were to read in between the lines, the truth of the matter is that an official of the MHF went ahead to deal with Roelant Oltmans, thereby sealing the fate of interim coach Tai Beng Hai.

So it was a pre-meditated move to get rid of Beng Hai given that the team failed to qualify for the World Cup when they lost the crucial match on November 15 and two weeks later Oltmans was already in Kuantan discussing terms.

It is clear that MHF had worked against its own personnel, starting negotiations with a foreigner if before the fate of the national team could be sealed.

It was downright unethical on the part of MHF to act as it did but what was more damaging was a statement made by an influential official to a senior player of the team prior to the Australian Test Matches in October.

"Do not announce your retirement yet as we will have a new coach after the Qualifiers" - those were the comforting words of the senior official after the player was dropped.

The only question MHF seem to be pondering upon right now is if they have the financial resources to afford the Dutchman.

With NSC only willing to provide around RM35,000 of the RM100,000 cost for the duo, MHF will rely on its President to get the remainder, a feat he is quite capable of.

Tengku Mahkota's inclination towards Dutch coaches is well known as it was he who is instrumental in getting a Dutch football coach to start a development program in January. This issue will be highlighted in Malaysian Sports.

So today in Penang history will be re-visited as Beng Hai will most likely receive the chop through the media, or be relegated to the role of Assistant Coach.

And those responsible for the decline in Malaysian Hockey will squirm in their seats as there is back stabbing within the MHF ranks as information is being leaked out.

One last thing though, the appeal of national coaches to handle teams in the MHL should be discussed today as well.

I wonder why the clubs have not just registered them as Team Managers, they cannot coach says MHF but it never said you cannot manage right, so why bother appealing?

BASKARAN SLAMS BRASA

Calcutta: Each and every team have its own tactical philosophy and tinkering with that doesn’t augur well, feels India’s Olympic gold winning captain and former coach Vasudevan Baskaran.

Baskaran, who was in the city to watch his son Laxman Karan turn out for Southern Railway in the Beighton Cup, says that India’s Spanish coach Jose Brasa is trying to change the Indian style of play and it’s not going to work.

“I have utmost respect for Brasa who guided the Spanish women’s team to gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. But Spanish style of hockey is a defensive one while the Indians love attacking. The skill level of any Indian player is at par with the best in the world. So one shouldn’t curb their natural flair for attacking. That is why Ric Charlesworth was a far better option for Indian players as Australians believe in aggressive play,” Baskaran told The Telegraph on Thursday.

“I find it difficult to digest the fact that skilful players like Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandekar or Arjun Halappa are being forced to play a defensive game. It’s not their natural game. It’s like asking a Bhaichung Bhutia to play as a stopper or making Sachin Tendulkar bat at No. 8,” Baskaran quipped.

Baskaran is also unhappy with the fact that drag-flicker Sandeep Singh has not been used sparingly in the recent times.

“I would have been happy had Sandeep been rested for the Champions Challenge in Argentina. He is one of our key players. If the injury turns out to be a serious one, we may just miss him during the World Cup next year which will be unfortunate,” he said.

Ask him about India’s chances in the World Cup, where they will be enjoying home advantage, Baskaran tries to be realistic.

“We are still not in a position to beat the Netherlands and Australia consistently. So our main aim would be to focus on remaining in the top six. That will be a creditable finish,” he added.

As the discussion veered towards India lacking too many drag-flick specialists, he comes up with the idea of having a talent hunt.

“I read in the paper that Ashok Dinda came into prominence when he won a fast bowling contest (Dinda came second in that particular contest in 2004 clocking 138 kmph on the speedometer). Why don’t we have such a contest for drag-flick specialists? There are plenty of talented boys across India,” he signed off.

TROPHYLESS UNDER 14

While the future of Malaysian hockey was battling in out in Kuantan, none of the top brass of the Malaysian Hockey Federation, with exception of the Hon. Secretary, were present to watch the youngsters of Kuala Lumpur and Perak fight it out.

These officials opted to be at the Tun Razak Stadium to play a meaningless match between MHF and Air Asia, at the expense of watching the youngsters, the very future of our sport, battle it out.

Perhaps there was a reason why these officials opted not to be there. See the trophy above, well there was no challenge trophy for the Under 14 Tournament, for two years running and the MHF must be held liable. So these officials were probably too shy to face the kids.

And talking about priorities, who was the genius that scheduled the match against Air asia on the very day of the final of the National Under 14.

Who cares about development?

OLTMANS - THE REAL DEAL

JUST IN FROM THE EMPLOYERS OF OLTMANS

Hockey: Oltmans remains with Laren
Laren, 04/12/2009

Coach Roelant Oltmans remains in Laren. This allows the Larensche Mixed Hockey Club know.

In recent days there have been reports in the press about the technical director and coach hockey coach of men's 1-Laren. He is talking with the Malaysian Hockey Federation. They asked him for advice because the field hockey players from Malaysia back on the highest podium to join. They should think of the World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Roelant Oltmans has a contract with Laren for 4 years until the summer of 2012. The club assumes that this successful cooperation will continue.

"Clearly there may be at present no question of me leaving to Malaysia soon and that it is very doubtful whether it will ever come so far," Oltmans said.

6FM Source: Conservation Larens (www.larensbehoud.nl)

Many have wondered jut how Roelant Oltmans was earmarked by a certain personality to coach Malaysia and over the past week some even went to the extent of trying to discredit this blog, claiming that it was a story plucked from thin air.

Well having let the dust settle down, and after letting the MHF officials have their week in damage control, let us now move ahead and reveal the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth with regards to this matter.

Oltmans was in Kuantan on the day of the MHF AGM and a meeting was held between him and officials from the NSC and MHF. So to the NSC official who said that he would pay me RM00,000 to prove that he met Oltmans, I do hope you do honour your word as Oltmans himself has revealed in interviews with Holland that he was in Malaysia and met with several people to discuss terms on taking over the national coaching position in Malaysia ( read www.hockey-asia.com for the interviews with Oltmans).

I can further reveal that Oltmans shocked those at the meeting with a salary demand of Euro 10,000 as the official concerned ( the newly appointed technical manager according to Oltmans interview) had given the officials the impression that the salary requested was USD10,000 and nothing was revealed about an assistant.

What might you ask is the difference between Euro 10,000 and USD 10,000, well it works out to be a cool RM20,000 per month.

Then there is the issue of wanting control over all teams, junior and senior with the coaches reporting to the Dutchman, development will come under his purview and total control over the national team program and policies.

Really I am all for it as we will do away with the National Team Management Committee, the Development Committee, the Joint Committee between NSC and MHF and the Selection Committee and will not need to hire Paul Lissek even though the Deputy President made the announcement prematurely without talking to the German.

The MHF has to ponder aboit all of this issues before December 13 when the decision is to be made in Penang but really, I do not believe a single word Oltmans says in his interviews that only a great offer can pry him away from his current job, that statement ios a red herring, to make us believe that he is not tempted by the Euros, that MHF needs a plan to put people in place.

What MHF needs is professionalism in dealing with such matters, and sadly none within the set-up are professionals as they undermine each other and hence provide cannon fodder to blogs.

So lets do some economics on this whole Oltmans deal, a total of Euro 16,000 for the two of them, plus perks such as cars, accommodation and tax breaks will amount to RM120,000 per month. So the annual expenditure will be RM1.4 million.

Now take that and compare to what the current national coaches receive, I learnt it was RM8,000 for the chief and RM5,000 for the assistant. So a total of RM13,000 that works out to RM156,000 per year, that is something in the range of 10 per cent of what the foreigners will receive.

Next we take a look at the subsidy that states receive from MHF for participation in the domestic tournaments. Each state receives between RM3,000 to RM5,000 depending on the tournaments and to make it easier lets work on RM5,000 per state and there is the Razak Cup, Under 23, Under 14.

So RM5,000 per tournament x 3 tournaments x 16 affiliates makes it a total of RM240,000 per year for the MHF to provide for their affiliates.

Let's take it a step further and say that MHF decides to provide a development grant of RM30,000 per year to its affiliates to kick start the development program that has yet to see the light of day. That will work out to something in the region of RM480,000.

So making a grand total, we have yet to reach the magical RM1 million mark and yet we want to spend all that money to hire a top coach. Tell you what MHF, bring in Barry Dancer, Maurits Hendrik, Oltmans and Paul Lissek, and you still will not solve the woes of Malaysian hockey as you have within your set-up personalities that are destroying whatever that can be salvaged from this sport. When we cannot differentiate USD and Euro, what good can you make to the sport?

Why do we look down on the ability of our coaches and not reward them accordingly? The problem lies with NSC as well as they never believe in the ability of the locals, always thinking that we are still eing colonised in sports.

Wake up MHF, trust in your own people, the Koreans have done it, the Pakistanis learnt a bitter lesson, the Indians are learning a lesson, wonder how long it will take for you to realise that Malaysia gained independence in 1957.

Money Money Money, its so funny, in a rich mans world....

WHO IS TO BLAME?

An interesting development took place at the MHF Coaching Committee where the Chairman Dr. Balbir Singh revealed that he was asked by the Hon. Secretary of MHF to issue the letter giving consent to coaches in the national set-up to take charge of teams in the MHL.

And Balbir went on to state that he only knew of plans to hire a foreign coach, ( read www.jugjet.blogspot.com on the Euro 10K salary and Euro 6K for the assistant) during the MHF AGM in Kuantan last Saturday.

If indeed what Balbir is claiming is true, then it will only be correct for a full disclosure as to why the Hon. Secretary had made for a letter and on whose directive he was acting upon.

It is bad enough that the Deputy President has taken over the roles of the Selection and Coaching Committee via the National Team Management Committee, but for a member of the MHF to direct a Chairman is illegal going by the constitution, unless it is now merely a scrap of paper.

And on the question of the foreign coach, why is there such secrecy, unless of course there is a buck to be made by the middleman.

Two cents advise to the MHF President, you have been misled Your Royal Highness, by individuals out to cement their position ahead of the elections next year.

Just look back at the whle 365 days under your leadership, so much has happened, even sweeping matters under the carpet will not help, as there is a lump beneath that all can notice.