NATIONAL chief coach Tai Beng Hai has made his stand clear on the issue of national players competing in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL), but many had misunderstood his reasons.
Yesterday, at a joint management committee meeting between the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) and the National Sports Council (NSC) Beng Hai made it clearer for all again, as two clubs had written in an appeal on the matter.
“From the very beginning I had never insinuated that national players should be banned from the MHL. I was always of the opinion that the MHL should be postponed after the Olympic Qualifiers next year.
“However, during a workshop on the matter, those present took a stand that the MHL must not be postponed, but national players should not be allowed to play in it so that I can carry on with my programme uninterrupted,” said Beng Hai.
The workshop’s decision is pending an approval stamp from the MHF Council, which will meet on Aug 20.
And yesterday, he again told the MHF-NSC joint meeting that he stands by his three proposals put forward before the workshop, to MHF deputy President (Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad) during a joint senior-junior team management committee meeting.
“I could not attend the workshop because it was postponed twice and when the new date was announced, I had already bought seven tickets for an overseas vacation with my family on the said date.
“However, I had stated three scenarios. The first was that the MHL be postponed after the Olympic Qualifier which is possibly in March next year.
“The second was to continue the MHL being held in mid-week and national players come back for training with me during weekends.
“And the third was to go ahead with the MHL minus the national players.”
However, Beng Hai had his reservations on the second proposal as history has proven that is a bad idea.
“The proposal to play midweek and then show up for national training during weekends has been tried many times before and it has never worked.
“From experience I know that many players will use numerous excuses, like tired or injured, to skip national training.
“And also, in the past, some clubs had refused to allow players to attend national training after they started losing matches in the MHL. Also, the players always return to camp unfit at the end of the MHL, and I have to start all over again,” lamented Beng Hai.
The coach is still of the opinion that the MHL should be postponed but if the MHF Council takes a strong stand against players who play truant or fake injuries, then he is all for releasing his charges to clubs.
“It is still in the hands of the Council, whether they want to postpone the MHL or carry on with national players. But my request to the Council is that if they choose to release the players to clubs, it must come with a warning that players who fail to turn up for national training by making excuses and faking injuries will be dropped from the squad,” said Beng Hai.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Finally, Malaysia 4 Japan 1
By AFTAR SINGH
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia put up a strong first-half display to chalk up a convincing 4-1 win over Japan in a friendly match at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Despite starting the match at 6.10pm – more than an hour before the breaking of fast – the Malaysians still managed to grab their first win in their third friendly, having lost the first two matches with identical 2-1 scorelines on Sunday and Monday.
The Malaysians, especially the Muslim players, began aggressively to take a 12th minute lead when forward Faizal Saari sent in a high flick past Japan goalkeeper Shunsuke Nagaoka off a penalty corner setpiece.
But Malaysia’s joy was shortlived. Three minutes later, the Japanese equalised through Katsuyoshi Nagasana — also off a penalty corner.
Coming through: Malaysia’s Hafifihafiz Hanafi and Malaysia dominated the game after that and surprised the Japanese by scoring three goals in 10 minutes.
First, they regained the lead in the 21st minute when Hafifihafiz Hanafi’s cross from the right was deflected into goal by forward Izwan Firdaus.
Three minutes later, Faizal was on target again for his second and the team’s third goal off another penalty corner.
Defender Mohd Razie Abdul Rahim, who was the top scorer in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) with 27 goals last season, made it 4-1 in the 30th minute off another penalty corner.
National coach Tai Beng Hai praised his men for a job well done despite them having to play the match before the breaking of fast.
“We lost the first two matches because the Muslim players were still adapting to playing before the breaking of fast. But after more than a week of fasting they are used to playing before (buka puasa),” he said.
Meanwhile, Japan will play a friendly against the Project 2013 squad today before they play two matches with the national senior team on Saturday and Sunday.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia put up a strong first-half display to chalk up a convincing 4-1 win over Japan in a friendly match at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Despite starting the match at 6.10pm – more than an hour before the breaking of fast – the Malaysians still managed to grab their first win in their third friendly, having lost the first two matches with identical 2-1 scorelines on Sunday and Monday.
The Malaysians, especially the Muslim players, began aggressively to take a 12th minute lead when forward Faizal Saari sent in a high flick past Japan goalkeeper Shunsuke Nagaoka off a penalty corner setpiece.
But Malaysia’s joy was shortlived. Three minutes later, the Japanese equalised through Katsuyoshi Nagasana — also off a penalty corner.
Coming through: Malaysia’s Hafifihafiz Hanafi and Malaysia dominated the game after that and surprised the Japanese by scoring three goals in 10 minutes.
First, they regained the lead in the 21st minute when Hafifihafiz Hanafi’s cross from the right was deflected into goal by forward Izwan Firdaus.
Three minutes later, Faizal was on target again for his second and the team’s third goal off another penalty corner.
Defender Mohd Razie Abdul Rahim, who was the top scorer in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) with 27 goals last season, made it 4-1 in the 30th minute off another penalty corner.
National coach Tai Beng Hai praised his men for a job well done despite them having to play the match before the breaking of fast.
“We lost the first two matches because the Muslim players were still adapting to playing before the breaking of fast. But after more than a week of fasting they are used to playing before (buka puasa),” he said.
Meanwhile, Japan will play a friendly against the Project 2013 squad today before they play two matches with the national senior team on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Japan win 2-1, again...
MALAYSIA went down to Japan 2-1 again on the second friendly at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil last night.
The national players played to the same script as the first friendly on Sunday, as they continued to play in patches.
Malaysia only showed some grit in the first 15 inutes of the match and there were plenty of action infront of the Japanese goalmouth before they took an early lead.
Izwan Firdaus scored in the fifth minute off a field effort, but that was the only good attempt in the first half.
Japan won the equaliser when Nabil Fiqri's rough tackle in the 25-yard area landed him a yellow card in the 18th minute, and Japan a penalty corner.
Katsuyoshi Nagasama flicked high into the net to beat goalkeeper S. Kumar for the equaliser.
During the breather, the Malaysain players also broke fast and when they returned to the pitch, the Japanese took total control of the match -- like they did in the first friendly.
And in the 56th minute, they won their fourth penalty corner and this time Toshiro Tachibana flicked high to beat goalkeeper Kumar to retake the lead, which also turned out to be the winner.
"I am not too worried with the results in theis series, as we are not only testing players but also their endurance during the fasting month," said national coach Tai Beng Hai.
Today is a break, while both teams will square off again on Wednesday at 6.10pm.
The national players played to the same script as the first friendly on Sunday, as they continued to play in patches.
Malaysia only showed some grit in the first 15 inutes of the match and there were plenty of action infront of the Japanese goalmouth before they took an early lead.
Izwan Firdaus scored in the fifth minute off a field effort, but that was the only good attempt in the first half.
Japan won the equaliser when Nabil Fiqri's rough tackle in the 25-yard area landed him a yellow card in the 18th minute, and Japan a penalty corner.
Katsuyoshi Nagasama flicked high into the net to beat goalkeeper S. Kumar for the equaliser.
During the breather, the Malaysain players also broke fast and when they returned to the pitch, the Japanese took total control of the match -- like they did in the first friendly.
And in the 56th minute, they won their fourth penalty corner and this time Toshiro Tachibana flicked high to beat goalkeeper Kumar to retake the lead, which also turned out to be the winner.
"I am not too worried with the results in theis series, as we are not only testing players but also their endurance during the fasting month," said national coach Tai Beng Hai.
Today is a break, while both teams will square off again on Wednesday at 6.10pm.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Japan 2 Malaysia 1
THE national hockey team looked lethargic as they lost the first friendly 2-1 against Japan at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil last night.
Coach Tai Beng Hai has four more matches against the Japanese during the fasting month, to test their endurance as the London Olympics will also be held during the fasting month.
Malaysia played in patches and the second minute goal was a defensive blunder which made Toshiro Tachibana's task of tucking in the ball past goalkeeper S. Kumar like a text-book drill.
Japan were on top of Malaysia most of the firsthalf, but were denied a bigger lead as Kumar stopped a handful of point-blank shot.
However, Malaysia scored the equaliser off a rare attack in the 23rd minute of the match, when Faizal Saari sounded the board.
After the breather, Malaysia kept losing the ball while the Japanese had a field day again, and Ryuji Farusato made it 2-1 with a deft field goal in the 47th minute to retake the lead.
And the Japanese kept the lead for the remainder of the match and won the first friendly with ease.
The second friendly will be held today at 6.50pm.
Coach Tai Beng Hai has four more matches against the Japanese during the fasting month, to test their endurance as the London Olympics will also be held during the fasting month.
Malaysia played in patches and the second minute goal was a defensive blunder which made Toshiro Tachibana's task of tucking in the ball past goalkeeper S. Kumar like a text-book drill.
Japan were on top of Malaysia most of the firsthalf, but were denied a bigger lead as Kumar stopped a handful of point-blank shot.
However, Malaysia scored the equaliser off a rare attack in the 23rd minute of the match, when Faizal Saari sounded the board.
After the breather, Malaysia kept losing the ball while the Japanese had a field day again, and Ryuji Farusato made it 2-1 with a deft field goal in the 47th minute to retake the lead.
And the Japanese kept the lead for the remainder of the match and won the first friendly with ease.
The second friendly will be held today at 6.50pm.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
How India's hockey federations cheated nation
By Sundeep Misra
— The author has written on hockey for over 20 years. His fiction based on hockey. Blood on the Turf is releasing in October.
Sports minister Ajay Maken has missed the opportunity of a lifetime. Provided, he thinks it was a miss. In one shot, he had the advantage with no goalkeeper in sight to score the match-winner.
But like a typical Indian striker with jelly hands and trembling wrists, he shot out and settled for a draw. Never before had any sports minister sat with a sawed off shot gun; Hockey India (HI) and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) in his cross hairs.
It was a moment that should have been seized by Maken to clean Indian hockey once and for all. Everybody was on the table, Hockey India’s Narendra Batra whose only role seems to be passing the buck, RK Shetty, president of IHF, who believes KPS Gill has the divine right to rule hockey and KPS Gill, who still believes hockey is a sultanate and he has acquired life-time rights.
Maken could have easily twisted them around and forced them to walk on purely one path — the growth and professionalism of Indian hockey.
That moment has passed. In the merger of HI and IHF, it is Indian sports’ biggest fraud committed. One body was formed (it still needs to be registered) but everything being done on a parallel level and in duplicates. The saving grace was they agreed on one national team at least.
The big or small question (as you want to look at it) is whether anybodyis looking at the future of the sport. Grass roots hockey is diminishing faster than the water table in Himachal Pradesh.
Sub-junior hockey is dead while junior hockey is in a comatose stage. The seniors are fighting over crumbs while the officials are engaged in a fire-fight to sell the game to the highest bidder.
The silver lining is a few people still believe that the sport can be sold and made it into the nation’s No 2 sport after cricket. But Batra, Shetty and Gill, like zillions of sports officials have no clue about the sport.
Gill was voted to power in 1994. We were still good then and to the credit of Gill, he did raise the profile. A few years later, he fell victim to what is a disease in Indian sport officialdom — the president of the IHF thought he was bigger than the sport.
Gill took decisions that professionals take when it comes to coaching and selections. He hired and fired coaches as if they were his personal property. Result — hockey slid faster than a falling comet. India for the first time failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Gill, finally, had managed to create history.
Now the same man wants the reins back.
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is a visionless organisation. Happy at being confined to the Olympics and living of grants, the FIH has done nothing to raise the profile and make the sport professional.
The Europeans rule it and are happy with their disgustingly boring tea parties. Europe needs to rule while the FIH has understood, though late, that without India, there is no money in hockey. So this massive PR exercise with India by gifting tournaments to us.
With FIH ruling out the merger and now threatening to pull out the tournaments including the Olympic Qualifiers, Indian hockey is at the crossroads.
Maken, in so many ways, has a second chance. He can call in the warring chiefs — read out the riot act and discipline them. Bring them under one body and merge the officials.
At the end of the day, whether you work for HI, IHF or Bharatiya Hockey (proposed name for the new body), you are anyway working for hockey. It is the designation that should be important to the Batra’s, Shetty’s and the Gills.
Holding the World Series Hockey will always be a point of attrition unless the FIH agrees to it. An easier thing would be to rename it into the Indian Hockey League and hold the tournament under one body. In essence, it becomes an Indian league with foreign players.
In his answer to the Lok Sabha on FIH not recognising the joint bodies, Maken said, “FIH has expressed concern over the proposed settlement stating that it would go against their statute, which provides for a sole national governing body in each member country. The entire matter is under consideration.”
With around six months left for the Olympic Qualifiers, we are still fighting over rusted office chairs and a sport which is on life-support. Ironically, by the very people who want to cut, dice and share the spoils even now.
Even the sports ministry’s very visionary step of appointing Australian Michael Nobbs as coach for five years is in danger.
IHF president RK Shetty said after the merger that they didn’t have a problem with Nobbs as he has appointed by the sports ministry. But he did throw in a hint by saying, “We would also like Joaquim Carvalho to be a part of the coaching process.”
Carvalho who played in the 1986 World Cup team where India finished last was also the coach when India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
Indian hockey does need a strong-arm ruler; someone who understands the sport and its future. Chairman of the technical committee and a former captain, Pargat Singh, believes hockey needs to progress beyond the state politics.
“It doesn’t matter who comes,” he says. “He needs to understand the sport and its future. Hockey has been battered enough.”
Like always, Indian hockey will find a middle path and sign off with the FIH. The Olympic Qualifiers have to be held in India if we are to qualify.
It would also do well for Gill, Shetty and Batra to concentrate on the Olympic Qualifiers rather than who will occupy which chair.
Priorities are to be chalked out. Otherwise, in six to seven months time, we will have a repeat of the Chile Olympic Qualifiers. Once out of the Olympics for the second consecutive time, Gill, Batra and Shetty will really not have a sport left to fight over.
DNA
— The author has written on hockey for over 20 years. His fiction based on hockey. Blood on the Turf is releasing in October.
Sports minister Ajay Maken has missed the opportunity of a lifetime. Provided, he thinks it was a miss. In one shot, he had the advantage with no goalkeeper in sight to score the match-winner.
But like a typical Indian striker with jelly hands and trembling wrists, he shot out and settled for a draw. Never before had any sports minister sat with a sawed off shot gun; Hockey India (HI) and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) in his cross hairs.
It was a moment that should have been seized by Maken to clean Indian hockey once and for all. Everybody was on the table, Hockey India’s Narendra Batra whose only role seems to be passing the buck, RK Shetty, president of IHF, who believes KPS Gill has the divine right to rule hockey and KPS Gill, who still believes hockey is a sultanate and he has acquired life-time rights.
Maken could have easily twisted them around and forced them to walk on purely one path — the growth and professionalism of Indian hockey.
That moment has passed. In the merger of HI and IHF, it is Indian sports’ biggest fraud committed. One body was formed (it still needs to be registered) but everything being done on a parallel level and in duplicates. The saving grace was they agreed on one national team at least.
The big or small question (as you want to look at it) is whether anybodyis looking at the future of the sport. Grass roots hockey is diminishing faster than the water table in Himachal Pradesh.
Sub-junior hockey is dead while junior hockey is in a comatose stage. The seniors are fighting over crumbs while the officials are engaged in a fire-fight to sell the game to the highest bidder.
The silver lining is a few people still believe that the sport can be sold and made it into the nation’s No 2 sport after cricket. But Batra, Shetty and Gill, like zillions of sports officials have no clue about the sport.
Gill was voted to power in 1994. We were still good then and to the credit of Gill, he did raise the profile. A few years later, he fell victim to what is a disease in Indian sport officialdom — the president of the IHF thought he was bigger than the sport.
Gill took decisions that professionals take when it comes to coaching and selections. He hired and fired coaches as if they were his personal property. Result — hockey slid faster than a falling comet. India for the first time failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Gill, finally, had managed to create history.
Now the same man wants the reins back.
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is a visionless organisation. Happy at being confined to the Olympics and living of grants, the FIH has done nothing to raise the profile and make the sport professional.
The Europeans rule it and are happy with their disgustingly boring tea parties. Europe needs to rule while the FIH has understood, though late, that without India, there is no money in hockey. So this massive PR exercise with India by gifting tournaments to us.
With FIH ruling out the merger and now threatening to pull out the tournaments including the Olympic Qualifiers, Indian hockey is at the crossroads.
Maken, in so many ways, has a second chance. He can call in the warring chiefs — read out the riot act and discipline them. Bring them under one body and merge the officials.
At the end of the day, whether you work for HI, IHF or Bharatiya Hockey (proposed name for the new body), you are anyway working for hockey. It is the designation that should be important to the Batra’s, Shetty’s and the Gills.
Holding the World Series Hockey will always be a point of attrition unless the FIH agrees to it. An easier thing would be to rename it into the Indian Hockey League and hold the tournament under one body. In essence, it becomes an Indian league with foreign players.
In his answer to the Lok Sabha on FIH not recognising the joint bodies, Maken said, “FIH has expressed concern over the proposed settlement stating that it would go against their statute, which provides for a sole national governing body in each member country. The entire matter is under consideration.”
With around six months left for the Olympic Qualifiers, we are still fighting over rusted office chairs and a sport which is on life-support. Ironically, by the very people who want to cut, dice and share the spoils even now.
Even the sports ministry’s very visionary step of appointing Australian Michael Nobbs as coach for five years is in danger.
IHF president RK Shetty said after the merger that they didn’t have a problem with Nobbs as he has appointed by the sports ministry. But he did throw in a hint by saying, “We would also like Joaquim Carvalho to be a part of the coaching process.”
Carvalho who played in the 1986 World Cup team where India finished last was also the coach when India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
Indian hockey does need a strong-arm ruler; someone who understands the sport and its future. Chairman of the technical committee and a former captain, Pargat Singh, believes hockey needs to progress beyond the state politics.
“It doesn’t matter who comes,” he says. “He needs to understand the sport and its future. Hockey has been battered enough.”
Like always, Indian hockey will find a middle path and sign off with the FIH. The Olympic Qualifiers have to be held in India if we are to qualify.
It would also do well for Gill, Shetty and Batra to concentrate on the Olympic Qualifiers rather than who will occupy which chair.
Priorities are to be chalked out. Otherwise, in six to seven months time, we will have a repeat of the Chile Olympic Qualifiers. Once out of the Olympics for the second consecutive time, Gill, Batra and Shetty will really not have a sport left to fight over.
DNA
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