Hockey

Well my love and hate relationship with hockey comes again. This time thru no fault of my own i am elected VP of a state association. I did not lobby for it I did not make a sales pitch heck I beat 6 other guys? Go figure

I dont know why back from the days in Malaysian Hockey Federation people are afraid of change. Politics and deadwood rule sport, I would say majority of the sports and hockey is no different, people are afraid to embrace technology (heck some even reluctant to get an email!!!) people are afraid to make a paradigm shift and everyone loves their comfort zone. My battles to change this still continues.

At national level at a meeting I attended, people become yes men to things that are so obvious. For example, in SUKMA if you look at the rules of the tournament the way we need restructure fixtures seem to be bogged down by red tape.

SUKMA Hoki previously was 3 groups of 3 teams means if you play one game you lose you 18 month investment in developing the team at a budget of over RM 50k with allowance for players managers ( who dont attend every training), cost not factored in are all down the drain!!

It takes 3 SUKMA to change it to a 2 group system - go figure.

Sukses - you can just have it coz you wanna have it? You can take 9 districts in Selangor tell them ok make up a team though ur district take part in a 3 day tournament and try to have 17 matches between Fri-Sun and wrap it up. Oh by the way we dun have enough funds we have to slash the budget? Hello!! BTW you only get 1 t-shirt while officials get Batik hehehe

How about doing away with elaborate fireworks or opening ceremonies or grand dinners and hand that amount to each state sports association. Trust me each state association would like nothign better then to provide the avenue for the players to compete in an equal field.

Not cramping 6 games a day at 25 minutes each half, teams playing 2 games a day and dropping dead on the field from exhaustion and getting a poor finals

Lastly people who plan calendar need to consult stae bodies. Imagine if the Sukses (U-22) was schedule wiht the National (U-23) same time.... why> people who go for meeting dun bother to make proper reports and hand over... We cant just makan kuih aje


Anyway past few night of trying to have budget meeting and strategies fixtures

Sukses will be Jul 10-12 whew!!!
Champions Schools Jul 18/19 - worth watching
K.Ramalingam (god bless his soul) Cup 8-a-side will be the August 1st weekend
National U-23 (not my tournament) Jul 16-27

I sure hope this works.