Demote us to Div Two, Pahang side pleads with junior league committee

KUALA LUMPUR: Msp-yayasan Pahang have appealed to the Malaysia Junior Hockey League’s (MJHL) technical committee to demote them for this year’s tournament.

The team have been placed in Division One as last year’s representative MSSP-MSP-MPK Pahang had finished in eighth position. MSS Kelantan and Ipoh City Council (ICC) were demoted but the latter remained in Division One after merging with SMK Anderson.

Msp-yayasan Pahang coach Chuah Boon Huat said he had informed the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) of their request when he submitted the entry on Friday.

“So we were surprised to learn that we are in Division One which is too strong for us as we are a new team. MSP, who backed MPK last year, are also sponsoring us. That is the extent of their involvement in the team. I suppose the committee thought that since we used the Pahang name, we were the same outfit,” he said.

Boon Huat conceded that he had only made a verbal request which was accepted by the officials.

“We will write to the MHC with an official request to have our status changed. I’m sure there are other teams who would want to play in Division One in our place.

“I know the quality of matches in Division One will be higher, but what is the point of just being the whipping boys. I really believe that we are out of our depth here,” he said.

For Boon Huat, who had played in the MJHL in the 90s for Malacca, this is his first foray into the league as coach.

The ex-international is Pahang’s Sukma coach but stressed that the Msp-yayasan side is not their Sukma team.

“Far from it. This is just a development team where we hope to find a few players for the Sukma squad. These players have no real experience and the MJHL outing is purely for exposure. We will try our best but the objective is to gain experience,” he added.

This will be the second time that Boon Huat will be coaching an age group team. He was in charge of the Malacca team for the national Under-21 competition last year.

The Msp-yayasan team also face a home ground problem as the two pitches in Kuantan - Kuantan Hockey Stadium and the Sukpa Stadium - have been declared unplayable by the technical committee.

“We are trying to get one of the turfs repaired but are not sure when that will happen. Otherwise, we will be forced to play our home matches elsewhere, perhaps in Malacca,” said Boon Huat.

A decision will be made before the team managers meeting on Jan 14.