IT is a confirmed fact that the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) Coaching Committee is just a rag doll, being tossed in different directions, by those with vested interests.
Two recent cases strenghten the argument that the committe is just a rubber stamp, and endorses, not makes decisions on coaches.
The first is the decision by its chairman Dr Balbir Singh to issue a letter stating that national coaches can coach Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) Premier Division teams only to be shot down by the council.
The second is that it did not sit to discuss possible foreign coaches, but were told about the plans to hire a Dutch coach and assistant to take over the reigns of the national team from interim coach Tai Beng Hai.
The coaching committee chairman is the only one who was consulted as even though the Dutch coach has been offered Euro 10,000, while his assistant Euro 6,000 to coach Malaysia.
"I called for a coaching committee meeting today (yesterday) to clear the air on appointments of coaches for the MHL. I told my members that I was placed under undue pressure by the MHF secretary (Hashim Yusoff) to issue the letter with the believe that the National Sports Council and the MHF president supports this.
"However, I found out that the MHF president and council members are against the move to allow NSC paid coaches to handle MHL teams when I attended the AGM in Kuantan. That is why I have called for a meeting today.
"And the coaching committee members agreed that NSC paid coaches Tai Beng Hai, K. Dharmaraj, K. Gobinathan, Nor Saiful Zaini, Nor Azlan Bakar and Lailin Abu Hassan can't coach MHL teams.
"This decision was made because the coaching committee want to eradicate bias and favouritism when players are seelcted for national duty," said Dr Balbir.
And then Balbir revealed that his committee members did not sit to discuss, about the plans to hire a foreign coach.
"The matter was brought up during the AGM, and I and my committee members (who are state hockey officials who attend the AGM), knew about it then," said Balbir.
And then the fact that a total of Euro 16,000, not including housing and other allowances, will be paid monthly to the foreign coach and his assistant was revealed after TimeSport found out that the coach was in Malaysia to negotiate the terms of employment.
