FEB 14 — The Malaysian penchant for imposing on foreign coaches the local way of managing their teams or athletes could have been why former national hockey coach Paul Revington called it quits last month.
Revington resigned citing poor health due to job pressure, but I believe there is more to it than meets the eye. But a brief conversation with Revington at his farewell do last Saturday, organised by former Mailsport journalist S. S. Dhaliwal after the idea was mooted by a fan, Masidayau Mazlan, for fans and friends, left me convinced that there were other factors that made him take the decision.
After I wished Revington all the best in his future undertakings, we started talking about foreign coaches in Malaysia. I gave my reasons as to why foreign coaches do not last long in Malaysia, one of which was that unless they pandered to their employer or officials, they might as well be on their way out.
I could sense from Revington’s body language that he could relate to what I was talking about.
When I said I knew of this problem from as early as 1985 — when national football coach the late Frank Lord told me before he left that Malaysia was a great place to visit but not to work as a foreign coach – Revington’s eyes lit up and he said: “Yes, I had heard of Frank. He used to reside in Cape Town.”
When I added that short-term contracts of two years were another reason why foreign coaches were forced to recall experienced and past national players when they named their squad, Revington nodded his agreement.
In Malaysia, the target for foreign coaches when they are signed on is: “We want results yesterday!”
Short-term contracts will hardly see foreign coaches risk working with youngsters as the team will take time to shape up and the results will be slow.
Foreign coaches will naturally take the safer path, which will give them a higher rate of success: recalling experienced and older players. They would not want to tarnish their international reputation.
And when these foreigners leave, Malaysia is back to square one as the experienced players will leave and the younger players will have to start all over again.
Interference by association officials, team managers, fellow coaches and sometimes rebellious players in how a foreign coach works or even in naming the line-up for matches is the norm in Malaysian sports.
I still remember what Lord said when asked about his probable line-up for an upcoming match at the 1983 Sea Games in Singapore said: “You want my line-up, my team manager’s, my assistant coach’s or that of my assistant team manager who runs a tyre shop?”
Last week, I bumped into George Jayaraj, the former sports editor of a national daily, and we got to talking about sports. He opined that Malaysian sports will get nowhere as long as we brought in foreign coaches and told them what to do.
“Former national coach Karl Weigang told me and P’ng Kwang Kuan (former New Straits Times sports journalist) that he was unhappy that he was told that a percentage of players for matches had to be of a certain nationality. But we did not report this as it would have created unrest among the players, which would not have been good for goodwill in the country,” he recalled.
My question to Jayaraj was, what did Weigang do? Did he name his line-up or adhere to the instructions.
Obviously, Weigang did the latter as he survived as a coach and even came back later as a state coach. But towards the end of his tenure, he too decided to leave.
This is where I salute Revington. I believe that besides his illness, another major factor for his resignation was that he could not compromise in executing his job and decided to part ways instead.
At least he decided to keep his principles and not succumb to external pressure.
Revington is still in town, waiting for his wife Sandy to deliver their twins next month.
Before him, many other foreign coaches left because they could not work with the management or the players. Among them were badminton coaches Morten Frost, Indra Gunawan, Li Mau and Rexy Mainaky; football coaches Lord, Trevor Hartley, the late Bertalan Biskei , Claude Le Roy; athletics coaches Daniel St Hilaire, Wang Lin and Uwe Freimuth; and hockey coaches Terry Walsh, Volker Knapp and Paul Lissek, to name but a few.
It is fine that foreign coaches are educated on the local culture so that they are aware of our sensitivities, but to force them to coach or manage the Malaysian way will not benefit the sports concerned. It is better that we just get local coaches and tell them what to do. They will be more familiar with our ways, anyway.
So, let us not spend huge sums of money on hiring foreign expertise, only to tell them what to do.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
