December Round up - bad start for the new committee

I read with great interest the wholesale changes taking place in MHF this past month. On one hand, I think the choice of the Tengku Mahkota as the president is a very good one. A troubled association like this needs a strong honest leader to guide it back to its proper course. Unfortunately I can't say that he has the best group of men surrounding him.

Let us start with the Vice President; players of the same generation of him (around 10-15 years ago) would remember how notorious he was as a player. He was banned a number of times for various reasons including I think for assaulting a referee, the punishment was handed out by none other than the MHF disciplinary committee. This means that he is a felon in MHF's records. Now correct me if I am wrong, but here we are electing a person who was banished by the association to help turn MHF around? More recently is the case about mismanagement of funds when he was the manager of the national team. Most players and MSN official know about it but chose to keep silent; therefore the case was not proven. But more importantly it wasn't proven otherwise either, the missing funds were still not accounted for and as the manager he is still answerable.

Next we have the re-elected treasurer (and secretary for that matter). What is that about? In ANY decent organization, whenever there are unanswered questions in the account books, missing funds or ridiculous over-spending the first person to take responsibility should be the finance man. He can't be putting his hands up and cry that he was forced into those situations, he has to stand up for what is right. He is the gatekeeper to an association's wealth. He failed miserably with the last management and yet he is re-elected. Why? So the current management can also have a free hand with funds? Do the honorable thing; you have failed in managing our funds, step down.

We also have Datuk Poon Fook Loke as the proposed new coaching chairman. Don't get me wrong he was a great player (still playing decently actually) and overall nice bloke; no disrespect to him but he is no coach. Ask him when was the last time he coached a team? When was the last time he did any development work? What sort of coaching certification does he hold or when was the last time he sat for coaching course update for that matter? What sort of background does he have in sports science and technology? Again correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't a coaching chairman have an above average knowledge in the listed matters? Otherwise how would he advise/select the national coaches or god forbid, draw up the coaching curriculum? The chairman then should be a person with outstanding coaching knowledge and experience. NOT just an outstanding player.

The proposed Development chairman is now Kenneth Pereira. Seems like a decent guy, but could somebody please list down his development credentials. The development committee and coaching committee are extremely important for the future of our sport. To be able to lead this committee that person MUST have had first hand experience; he must know the underlying problems that face hockey development at this point in time. An experienced grassroots coach/teacher in knowledge in the inner workings of the schools system and administration would have been a better choice. Well at least the Medical committee has a doctor leading it and the Umpires board has an umpire at the helm, hopefully they know what they are doing and not let us down.

We also seem to have Minarwan and Maninderjit in the newly formed Wawasan committee. How has they served the greater cause of hockey other than as a player to be chosen to be in this committee? I would have thought an elder statesman of hockey that has been involved with the grassroots and has vast amounts coaching/administrative would have been a better choice. There are a number of other former players that fits the bill, Datuk Ho Koh Chye (RIP) was an excellent pick. But then again they are there probably because they co-wrote the 99 page draft, which in that case is just MHF being ignorant. Again, I would like to stress that being a former great player does not automatically qualifies a person to be a neither good administrator nor coach.

Now let's move on to MSN, or in particular the Director of MSN. Wasn't it surprising that he came out jumping once the new MHF lineup was announced? "MSN shall give MHF its full support" he said. Meaning that MSN did not give its full support before this?? Which also translates to the former national coaches being underhand prior to this? We know MSN hold the purse strings to most national associations, but to come out openly to support certain quarters is just being irresponsible and on the borderline of abuse of power. Rumors were already circulating that MSN were talking to a former Korean coach (he confirmed it by the way) months before the MHF election took place, very unilateral on their part. And MHF pretty much confirmed that he will be coming our way in the same breath as they announced the new Coaching chairman. Let's recap: MSN talked to the new coach even before the MHF election and MHF committee announces they have a new coach before they had a coaching committee chairman (or even a coaching committee for that matter!). So we are left wondering who actually advised/decided on hiring the new coach in the first place?? Well, now more recently MHF is trying to say that they have not finalized the coach yet...they have to wait for the coaching committee to meet; a reversal of what was announced after the council meeting the week before. Wow, talk about starting on the wrong foot! And even more recent, the malay mail seems to be trying to get support for the korean coach by interviewing some former korean player. If i were to interview a spanish player, he would have had praises for a spanish coach, like wise if i were to interview an australian...what is this particular reporter trying to prove?? that a 'yet to be' chosen korean coach is good as declared by a korean player? hmmm...

Shouldn't we advertise for the coach's position so we have an idea who might be interested? After all, the Korean guy might not be the best choice, he is well adapt to lead a team of players that are ultra disciplined and ultra dedicated…have no life other than hockey, that are willing to work 24/7. I do not think he will be able to find that type of raw material to work with over here.

And finally a word for the 102 former internationals committee: congratulations because you have managed to make changes to the MHF. But to me that is the easy part. Now, I would like to see how many of these people who put pen to paper are able to turn up day in and day out to help hockey develop. I will be keeping an eye out for them on the hockey fields every weekend and late in the evenings developing the young ones, after all these are the people that matter most.

p.s - not accusing anyone of anything...just raising a few questions.

The January installment will be coming out shortly