Game doesn’t need yet another reboot
Malaysian hockey needs a new system and new management to succeed
KUALA LUMPUR: In most countries where transparency and accountability are the norm, repeated failure results in officials and players getting the boot. In Malaysia, they just keep on rebooting the same old system, with the same old incompetent managers, and producing the same old fiascos.
So hiring a foreign coach is not the panacea to the many ills which plague Malaysian hockey, which has, once again, failed to qualify for the Olympics.
The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC), when it was the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF), always sought out foreign coaches when confronted with failure.
But former national coach C. Paramalingam says this had not worked in the past and was unlikely to succeed now.
“This is not the way to improve the standard of the national team,” he said yesterday, citing the hiring of coaches like Terry Walsh of Australia and Germany’s Paul Lissek.
The national team failed to make the 1994 World Cup in Sydney under the guidance of Walsh in the Intercontinental tournament in Poznan in 1993, which served as the qualifier.
In the 2004 Madrid qualifier, the team, trained by renowned German coach Lissek, did not make the cut for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Malaysia flopped again, their third consecutive failure, when the team finished a disappointing third in the recent Olympic qualifying tournament in Dublin.
Paramalingam said he totally disagreed with the suggestion that only a foreign coach can lift the standard of the national team.
“Even great coaches like Walsh and Lissek couldn’t do it so why should that change now.
“MHC must have faith in local coaches. Look at the South Koreans, they never had the services of any foreign coach and yet have produced encouraging results in tournaments.
“The Koreans send their coaches for attachments overseas and they have produced quality teams who have featured in the Olympics and World Cup since the 80s.
“The Koreans, who only took up hockey seriously in the 80s, even surprised everyone by winning the silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Games,” said Paramalingam.
Korean coach Kim Sang-ryul, who has never played for his country, was sent to the Punjab, India, for nine months to train.
Paramalingam said MHF should keep faith in their five high performance coaches — Stephen van Huizen, Tai Beng Hai, Wallace Tan, Colin Sta Maria and Lim Chiow Chuan — as they are capable of handling the national team.
“They should be sent on attachment to either Australia, Germany or Holland to further improve their coaching knowledge,” said Paramalingam, who was the national coach from 1982-86.
Paramalingam also said that centralised training throughout the year does not make the players any better.
“It stunts the game as the players get jaded training for long periods. Training must be decentralised and the Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) should be held over a longer period of five to six months rather than just three months,” said the former international.
He added that MHC must work on developing thinking and disciplined players, who are capable of rising to the occasion when it mattered.
“We shouldn’t be relying on the same set of players, who obviously can’t learn anything as they keep on making the same old mistakes. The national team lack calibre forwards. This is obvious from the number of chances they miss in matches.
“We are relying too much on the same old faces. The time has come to start exposing juniors in tournaments like the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in May,” said Paramalingam.
“There is also no proper development programme in Malaysia. We just cannot depend on sports schools (Bukit Jalil Sports School and Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School) to deliver players for the national junior team. We need a much bigger talent pool.
“Coaches must go to the rural areas to unearth talent. We simply cannot rely on the same 25 players. There must be solid competition for places in the national team to avoid complacency,” said Paramalingam.
Malaysian hockey obviously does not need another futile reboot, as it will only crash again. It needs a new system, new ideas and, above all, new management.