Malaysia

BY S. RAMAGURU
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) competition committee will come out with clearer and strictly enforced guidelines on the eligibility of players for national tournaments.

MHF acting secretary T. Paramalingam said yesterday that unless the guidelines are spelled out clearly, the states are going to use the loopholes available to their advantage.

For the past 10 years the Razak Cup competition has been hit by eligibility snags despite changes in the rules every year.

“I think there are ambiguities our current rules. It is better that we throw out the current rules and start from scratch to implement a new one.

“All we have done is change or add new rulings to the existing one and this causes confusion. The new competitions committee must look into the issue and implement a set of ruling which will not be wrongly interpretated,'“ said Paramlingam.

Before the start of this year's Razak Cup competition, the eligibility problem came up again.

Defending champions Kuala Lumpur, who successfully retained the title, was again embroiled in controversy.

With an influx of players from other states KL have the pick of the best players. And players not selected chose to play for other teams instead of their home state.

Under the rules, KL could only have six internationals in their team. Hence several others were dropped but they did not return to their home states as stipulated in the rules.

Goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin, dropped from the KL team, played for Pahang instead of his state Perak. I. Vicknesweran, who is from Johor, also turned out for Pahang.

“There were many such incidences. But for some reason the tournament organising committee allowed it to happen.

“I'm not sure where the confusion is coming from but we have to take responsibility and act on it.

“Unless we sort this out the Razak Cup will continue to be riddled with problems.”

Paramalingam also wants the current RM500 fine for late withdrawals from the tournament to be increased.

“The RM500 fine is not effective. This year two teams withdrew at the eleventh hour.

“The incoming competitions committee must look into this and make sure the fine will deter teams from pulling out in future.”

KL won the Razak Cup title for the 16th time despite efforts by the Malaysia Hockey Federation to restrict to six national players per team.

Overall there was nothing exciting in this year's competition except for the fact that the participating teams are blooding more youngsters.

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