JAN 21 — What is it with foreigners coaching in Malaysia?
Paul Revington joins the last three foreign hockey coaches — Terry Walsh, Volker Knapp and Paul Lissek — who resigned under odd circumstances.
And this despite the fact all three had done well for Malaysia. Thus, their departures left a sour taste in the mouth.
Walsh, currently coaching India, had steered Malaysia to the bronze medal at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games and to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Yet, he left abruptly in 1993.
Knapp took Malaysia to the 1998 World Cup after a 16-year absence but his contract ran out on May 31, 1998. He continued to coach the national team — without a contract — until the World Cup was over on June 5.
Lissek, considered a master of the game, was removed after the 2004 Asia Cup.
The latest enigma is Revington, who had resigned two weeks before the World League Semifinals in Johor Baru in June but retracted his letter to guide Malaysia to this year’s World Cup in The Hague. But he has opted to quit again with the World Cup just four months away, this time citing a stress-related illness as the reason.
While we sympathise with Revington on his illness, he must surely know the pressure that comes with the job and quitting at this stage certainly is inappropriate.
Why did he not say what was really on his mind instead of deserting the team again?
The fact that he found it extremely difficult to fight the onset of a stress-related illness since June 2013, indicates that issues related to his earlier resignation — external interference — still persists or has resurfaced.
Ironically, Revington had named 35 players to the national squad prior to his resignation. If stress was the issue, why didn’t he quit earlier?
For Revington to throw in the towel again is questionable.
That the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) and National Sports Council (NSC) had this time allowed Revington to leave despite his contract expiring only on July 31, suggests there were some underlying factors which have not been revealed.
If there were indeed ‘external factors’ involved in the departure of Revington, Malaysian hockey would be the loser.
K. Dhamaraj has been named as Revington’s replacement instead of Arul Selvaraj. This also raises questions, although the former had stood up to ask for the job.
Arul, being named as National Juniors coach, could be viewed as a demotion as he had been Revington’s trusted second man since their days in South Africa, Ireland and Malaysia — a span of eight years.
It’s also puzzling why some of the local world-class coaches available, like former national coaches Stephen van Huizen, Wallace Tan and Colin sta Maria, were not considered as Revington’s replacement.
Decisions seemed to have been made in a hurry where the coaching, national team management and executive board committees were left in the dark.
Indeed, there were more questions than answers at the the press conference held yesterday by Revington and MHC officials.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
