You may wonder why I use that as the heading for this article. Well it has to do with the fact that in Malaysian Hockey, everything is so dependant on the National Sports Council, so much so I must add that they are the peopkle who decide what happens in MHF. Well, just consider this situation.
The U16 team were not allowed to participate in an invitational tournament in Germany, on the advise of NSC (who are the financers of the trip to Germany). And just three weeks ago FAM says its not safe for teams to come to Malaysia...all of this due to the H1N1 virus. But the NSC it seems have told the hockey team that they will arrange for an invitational tournament in Malaysia sometime in the near future. Mind you these boys are preparing for their exams (SPM) and will therefore have to concentrate on their studies from next month onwards.
The young players had trained hard, looking forward to this trip and when I spoke to coach K. Dharmaraj during the Asia Cup, he stressed the importance of exposure for the youngsters. I am sure that many of them will feel shortchanged.
If NSC had the interest of the players at heart, then why did they not stop the National Futsal team from going to Uzbekistan. And why not they tell FAM not to participate in the AFF Futsal Championships in Vietnam next month as there is a cholera outbreak there.
The bottom line is that NSC finances hockey, hence they have complete control over the association. See how only the Deputy President makes the statements about the team's withdrawal from the 4 Nation event.
This gets better with the cancellation of the U14 Championships, postponed to a later date says the Deputy President due to too many events held by MHF. Hey, isn't it the MHC that ran those tournaments?
Just a week ago I was told that the German HA had wrote three emails to MHF asking about ticket prices for the Junior World Cup. Want to know something, they never replied, cos all were too busy in Kuantan. And for the info off all, the entry I am told is free.
Laboratory-confirmed cases of new influenza A(H1N1) as officially reported to WHO by States Parties to the International Health Regulations (2005) Mexico topped the list with 3,103 laboratory-confirmed case of infection, including 68 deaths. The US reported 4,714 laboratory-confirmed cases, including four deaths. Canada has 496 laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death. Japan has 125 laboratory- confirmed cases, with no deaths. Costa Rica has nine laboratory- confirmed cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory-confirmed cases with no deaths: Argentina (1), Australia (1), Austria (1), Belgium (5), Brazil (8), Chile (1) China (6), Colombia (11), Cuba (3) Denmark (1), Ecuador (1), El Salvador (4), Finland (2), France (14), Germany (14), Guatemala (3), India (1), Ireland (1), Israel (7), Italy (9), Japan (4), the Netherlands (3), New Zealand (9), Norway (2), Panama (54), Panama (1), Peru (1) Poland (1), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (103), Sweden (3), Switzerland (1), Thailand (2), Turkey (2) and the UK (101).
For the record, Malaysia has two confirmed cases.
