ABDUL Hadi aims to take the bull by its horns in the Oct 31 Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) elections after he was nominated by Perak for the post of deputy president.Hadi, a former national player and a terror in attack with Mirnawan Nawawi, has served as Perak HA deputy president for three terms, and feels the the time is right for him to serve in MHF.
He will be challenging incumbent Nur Azmi Ahmad, who received four nominations, Datuk Dr S.S. Cheema (two) and Tengku Majid Sultan Iskandar (one vote) for the deputy president's post.
MHF president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah was returned unopposed when nominations closed on Oct 15.
"I was nominated by my home state and agreed to stand for the second post because I feel MHF needs fresh blood to pump in new ideas," said Hadi.
"Nur Azmi was a vice-president for two terms, and then a deputy for one term. Cheema has been a vice-president for four terms, while Tengku Majid was a former deputy president.
"I am the fresh face, and since all the other three have served their time, I feel the delegates should choose someone with fresh ideas." And the former international is not going to lobby any state for the post as he feels they should know who can elevate the sport if given a chance.
"The sport has seen a steady slide for the last 10 years under current MHF officials. As an example, we were silver and bronze medallists in the Commonwealth Games, but have dropped to eighth in the recent Games in New Delhi, which is our worst performance.
"So, the sport needs people who can contribute to its development and I am available to make a concerted push for the next four years.
"It is not my style to pick up the telephone and lobby affiliates to vote for me. All I ask is for them to make the right choice after weighing up the factors that I have mentioned," said Hadi.
Hadi has stood for the post of MHF vice-president a few times but did not succeed.
"I am not trying to parachute to the second position. I have a good working track record with Perak HA and was also a member of various committees in MHF. I have experience from the bottom and being a former player, I understand what needs to be done to achieve the president's target of breaking into the top-10 bracket in the world." The balloting for the vice-president's posts is also expected to be intense, as eight will be vying for four posts.
Incumbents Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh, Datuk Rahim Ariff and M. Gobinathan received eight, nine and six nominations respectively.
The newcomers are Ow Soon Kooi (four), Johari Abdul Aziz (three), Mohinder Singh (one), Manjit Majid Abdullah (four) and Rahim Ahmad (one).
