OLD GOLD: (from left) Balasingam, Poon Fook Loke, Tengku Abdullah and Wong Choong Hin.
Though the match was played under a steady shower, the Johor Veterans
and Mahkota United teams played their hearts out in a match to mark the
50th Anniversery of the Johor Hockey Association at the Taman Daya
Hockey Stadium in Johor Baru.
The Mahkota United team, led by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation
president Tengku Abdullah Sulatn Ahmad Shah had four World Cuppers in
their ranks - Dato Poon Fook Loke, K. Balasingam and Wong Choong Hin of
the 1975 edition and Mirnawan Nawawi who played in the 2002 World Cup,
both ironically played in Kuala Lumpur.
And the JHA Veteran team was represented by the likes of former national
junior coach Balbir Singh, former national team manager Kali Kavandan,
former international umpire Faizal Abdullah who showed awesome reflexes
in between the posts.
The Johor team were also not short of quality coaches as A. Harbhajan
Singh aka Samurai and former national assistant coach Gurmit Singh
planned their tactics.
Kali Kavandan opened scoring for JHA Veterans in the 9th minute but
Mahkota United were on level terms in the 12th minute through Mirnawan.
Fook Loke, who has lost none of his skills, turned out to be the saviour
for Mahkota United as he saved a shot on the goal line in the second
half.
Though the match ended in a draw, every player who took the field was a
winner as the match was played in the true spirit of sportsmanship.
