Alcover: FIH must come down hard on India

21/03/2003

AZLAN Shah Cup tournament director Jorge Alcover feels that the
International Hockey Federation (FIH) is going to come down hard on India
for withdrawing from the tournament at the 11th hour.
Alcover said yesterday that the letter written to the FIH by India was
forwarded to him, and it is now up to the FIH Disciplinary Board to
determine the next course of action.
"On a personal note, I am very disappointed with India and I feel that
FIH should come down hard on teams who withdraw from tournaments because
it is not fair for the hosts, officials and also match umpires," said the
Spaniard.
"This has happened in many other tournaments but FIH has done very
little about it. The situation is getting worse and I feel that this time
the FIH may impose a fine on India for placing the hosts in a very
difficult situation."
The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) had already printed invitation
cards with India in the fixtures. It also had to cancel hotel reservations
and transport arrangements made for India.
If the FIH imposes a fine on India (the ruling clearly states that a
team must give at least two months notice prior to withdrawing) MHF will
be able to recover some of the costs. It will also be a deterrent to other
teams in future tournaments.
Alcover was also annoyed that umpires will now have fewer matches to
officiate and the long break in between matches will be annoying.
"Instead of 18 matches, there will now be only 12 and the break in
between is too long to benefit umpires," said Alcover.
Meanwhile, Malaysia played better in the third Test against Pakistan
whose forwards were effectively kept at bay by skipper S. Kuhan and
goalkeeper S. Kumar.
Malaysia had one penalty corner and Pakistan four, but both Kuhan and
Sohail Abbas failed to break the deadlock in the first half.
After the break, Malaysia played one of their best matches to date, and
were unlucky to fall to Sohail's 41st minute penalty corner goal.
Malaysia took control after the setback and earned three consecutive
penalty corners but Kuhan flicked wide each time.
Impressive for Malaysia were Megat Azrafiq, who showed a marked
improvement in defence while newcomer Wan Asyrizal has been shortlisted
for the final 18 when the team managers' meet in Ipoh today.
The national team will have one more friendly against Germany today
before the opening match on Saturday against South Korea.
(END)