Weaving their magic
> Local quidditch players are determined to turn the fictional game from Harry Potter into a serious sport
IF YOU think running around with a broom between your legs is funny, try doing it while swerving past your opponents, handling tackles and attempting to score a goal at the same time.
Those are the challenges of playing quidditch, the fictional sport from the Harry Potter series that was adapted for the real (or ‘muggle’) world by US college students in 2005.
While the idea of playing quidditch in the real world may seem comical, players are deadly serious about the sport. And none are more serious than team Quidditch Malaysia.
Founded by Andrew Kasimir and Charmaine Goh in 2013, the team is among the first quidditch teams to be established in Asia. This year, the team made its debut at the Quidditch World Cup, and placed 18th out of 29 teams from around the world.
The team has roughly 20 members, a coach in the form of Muhammad Hakim Syed Munif, and team captain Farhana Farhan Menon.
How is quidditch played in the muggle world? Hakim (H): “The game is played with six players on the field and involves positions called the Keeper, Beater, Chaser, and Seeker.
“Players in these positions wear different coloured headbands, like the Keeper wears green, Beater wears black, and Chaser wears white.” Farhana (F): “The Beater is basically the defence, and each team has two Beaters with three bludgers (dodgeballs) on the pitch.
“The Chaser’s main objective is to score with the quaffle (volleyball) and to defend if the other player is on offense. The Seeker ends the game by catching the snitch, while the Keeper saves the goals. The game ends when the snitch is caught and the team with the highest points wins.” Goh (G): “The snitch in the muggle world is a person dressed in yellow who has a tennis ball in a sock secured to his back which players have to pull off. It is released at the same time in every game which is at the 17th minute, and the Seeker goes out on the 18th minute.
“On average, a game lasts between 20 and 30 minutes. At the World Cup, the average time was between 45 minutes to an hour.” Andrew (A): “The person who is the snitch is not allowed to touch the tennis ball, but he or she is allowed to tackle you to the ground or pull the broom from under you. Basically whatever it takes [to stop] players [from catching] the snitch.”
How do you plan to promote this sport? F: “Some are afraid to join because they don’t want to be branded as a nerd, or weird. If we can show that it’s not a kid’s sport but a competitive one, we will be able to bring it up. When you see how athletic, agile, competitive, and smart quidditch players can be, they might be more aware.” G: “Our plan is to get acknowledgement from the government. The last time we spoke to them, they weren’t too supportive as it is not well-known and not a part of the Olympics.
“Now we are trying to get an audience with Youth and Sports minister Syed Saddiq to get us recognised.” H: “To be fair, we didn’t have any World Cup or tournament experience then, but with that added bonus now, we hope we can go further.”
What’s next? A: “Next year, there will be a friendly in Vietnam in January, and the Asian Quidditch Cup (AQC) in July. The AQC will be held either in Hong Kong or South Korea, and we are aiming to bring back the gold.” F: “We are also going to have more fantasy tournaments so we can show what quidditch is all about and there’s the next Quidditch World Cup in 2020. G: “What I really hope is for the team to play more like a unit instead of against each other. You don’t improve much from opposing each other. We want to play as a unit so we can improve from there.” H: “For that reason, we want to encourage other people to start their own teams so we can help each other improve to form a better Malaysia team for the international stage.”