No witch-hunt in Malaysia’s World Cup failure probe
BY S. RAMAGURU
The Malaysia hockey team players acknowledge the fan support after one of their World Cup matches at The Hague last month. - Filepic
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KUALA LUMPUR: The national hockey team performance review committee have assured they are not on a witch-hunt or fault-finding mission over the team’s poor showing at the recent World Cup in Holland.
The committee, headed by former national coach Datuk R. Yogesweran, have been tasked to assess and analyse the performance of the team who finished last in the 12-team tournament.
“This is not a committee formed to find fault with anyone. We are basically going to look at their preparations and analyse their performance as a way to move forward for the future.
“This has nothing to do with the appointment of coaches and so forth,” he said on Friday.
Among the committee members are National Sports Institute (NSI) CEO Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz, National Sports Council (NSC) director general Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong, Datuk Poon Fook Loke, Datuk Ow Soon Kooi, R. Ramakrishnan, M.P. Haridass and Ariffin Ghani and MHC national team management chairman and vice president Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad.
“Most of the work involves interviewing the team officials, players and stakeholders like the NSI and NSC. All other relevant people who wish to have their say can also contact us.
“What we would like to do is to find out what went into their preparations? Whether it was adequate or lacking in any way?
“We are also looking at a way forward for the team and our recommendations will be towards that end. There may have been some shortcomings and our group will study all the relevant data before we do our analysis,” added Yogesweran.
The committee have interviewed all the coaches who were with the team in The Hague and also provided the players with a questionnaire.
Yogesweran said they hope to complete the task in another 10 days.
Yogesweran pointed out that it is not unusual for the MHC to appoint a panel to review the performance of the team.
“This has been done before and I am sure that if some of those previous suggestions had been put to good use we may not have had some of the prevailing issues,” he said.
