COACH S. Chandran, with 20 years standing in the sport to back him, has called for the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) to fast forward its plans to revive the club structure before an obituary is written for hockey.
Chandran and Joseph de Silva pioneered the formation of Old La Sallian Association of Klang (OLAK) which went on to produce national players Amin Rahim, Redzuan Ponirin, Syayrim Uda Karim and Shaiful Azli.
And Electrical Switchgears Automation (ESA), under K. Kali Kavandan nurtured national players Jiwa Mohan, Jivan Mohan, Chua Boon Huat, K. Keevan Raj and K. Logan Raj.
And these are some of the players who took Malaysia into the final of the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.
Chandran watched the Malaysia-South Africa match at the Taman Daya Stadium on Monday and is of the opinion that our best juniors are far behind the rest, even among Asian teams.
"I feel that after Bandar Penawar and Bukit Jalil Sports Schools were formed, hockey at club and state levels took a severe beating. Clubs were the backbone and Malaysia have the distinction of finishing fourth twice in the Junior World Cup, but in the last 12 years, we have been among the also-rans."
Malaysia were 12th in 2001 in Hobart, 10th in 2005 in Rotterdam, and ninth in Johor Baru.
"BJSS and BPSS have also killed off interest in the Junior Hockey League as clubs and states are reluctant to take part as they know that the sports schools will dominate as they have the best in the country with them," added Chandran.
"That is why I urge the Education Ministry to also have a re-look into its policy of having a sports school in every state. The idea was mooted many times, but has yet to take off. Only when every state has a sports school would the competition be among peers, and sport in the country will reach the desired level.
"Right now, I do not see a bright future for this present batch of juniors whose failures have always been blamed on coaches.
"Many coaches were removed before K. Rajan took over and now there is talk that even Rajan would be removed after the Junior World Cup as, the word is, MHF is keen to hire a foreign coach.
"The MHF must learn to trust its own coaches, who have been working with poor material to start with, but produced better results than the string of foreign coaches who have trained our players with little success," said Chandran.
And in summing up, he said: "The Education Ministry, states, and National Sports Council are working in different directions to nurture grassroots hockey. That is why the situation is so messy, and much money being spent with no results to show. All three bodies need to sit down with the MHF and work as a team, if not, we will soon be number seven in Asia, behind Singapore."
