Division Two teams lose out due to ignorance of draw

24/01/2003

THE Junior Hockey League (JHL) draw was held yesterday in Kuala Lumpur and
the 12 Division Two teams ended up as losers, most likely because they
were ignorant of the quarter-final draw.
Twenty-two teams will be competing in the JHL, the same number as last
year, which begins on Feb 7 and the format this year is 10 teams in Div 1
and 12 in Div 2.
The top six teams from Div 1 and the top two from Div 2 will play in the
quarter-finals. The draw for the last eight spelled doom for the Div 2
teams.
The Div 1 champions are slated to play the runners-up from Div 2 while
the runners-up from Div 1 will meet the champions of Div 2 in the pre-
planned quarter-finals draw - and the outcome looks very predictable.
Strangely, none of the Div 2 teams raised the matter during the draw,
and it was members of the media who questioned the lop-sided draw with the
Malaysian Hockey Federation.
MHF secretary S. Satgunam then suggested a show of hands whether the
teams agreed to the pre-planned quarter-finals or have a draw after the
pool matches.
Only Malacca objected to the pre-planned draw while the rest of the Div
2 team officials were content to end their quarter-finals on a losing
note.
The draw saw a mouth-watering opening match - last year's third overall
Tenaga Nasional Bhd against finalists Malaysia Sports School (MSS).
Tenaga, last year's Group A champions, were knocked out in the semi-
finals by SSM and will be looking to avenge that defeat.
"It will be a very interesting opening match for us because we lost to
SSM in the semi-finals last year and the boys will surely go all out to
erase that memory," said Tenaga coach K. Rajan.
Tenaga has also targeted a better finish this year, which means topping
Div One and reaching the final in the Overall.
"We have the players to take Tenaga to a better finish than the third
last year. Which means we will be playing to top Div 1 and enter the
Overall final," said Rajan.
SSM, losing finalists last year, will be out to win their first title.
"We have a number of young players in the team and will be exposing them
in the JHL. It will be tough to predict the outcome because we have lost
some of our better players who have finished their Form Five last year,"
said MSS team manager Suhaimi Sun Abdullah.
"The training will only start next week because most of our boys have
returned to their respective States to play in the on-going National
Under-21 tournament."
In Div 2, Malacca Municipal Council, judging from their team list,
should finish in the top two.
"We have a strong team this year as we have recruited eight players who
left Anderson School in Ipoh. I am confident of finishing in the top two.
That is why Malacca brought up the issue of a pre-planned quarter-finals,"
said Malacca coach Eugene Lee.
"We feel that it might be a disadvantage for us if we reach our target,
but sadly, the other Div 2 teams did not support us for a last-eight draw
at a later date."
(END)