KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 ― Nearly a month after his resignation from vital positions in Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC), Datuk Ow Soon Kooi came out in the open to rebut prickly statements by MHC president Datuk Subahan Kamal.

Q&A with the former vice president and coaching committee chairman at press conference yesterday.

MM: Was Terry Walsh in your coaching committee?

Ow: He was never in the committee. I had Maheshwari Krishnan, R. Ramakrishnan, Ahmad Sayuti, Luw Sau Foong, V. Muraleedharan and Shahbuddin Royani. He merely came and presented his ideas to us.

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MM: While he was there he wasn’t going through you, checking with you before making decisions. You were left out of the loop as coaching chairman?

Ow: Not everything. Only after April 29 he stopped reporting to me. That broke the “camel’s back”. I felt redundant, left out. The honourable thing to do was to go and it was compounded by my health situation. I’m on pain killers everyday.

MM: After Datuk Ow resigned, did you all (coaching committee) feel redundant as well?

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Ramakrishnan on behalf of the rest responded: When Terry came on board (as technical director), we asked for his scope of work so there won’t be duplication of duties. Until we were replaced a week after Ow resigned, we still didn’t know what he was doing.

There were decisions via Whatsapp where we asked what our role was, because coaches were invited to give special training without us being informed. It was a requirement all coaches be referred to us if MHC wanted to appoint anyone. That wasn’t done so we felt left out, bypassed!

MM: No scope of work for you all?

Ramakrishnan: Our scope was restricted to just educating coaches, sending them for seminars, recommending who needs to be moved up. We were restricted.

MM: From our understanding there was lack of communication between the coaching committee, Terry and the president which led to this situation?

Ow: I’m a businessman. There are structures which I strictly adhere to. If players have an issue and come to me first I redirect them to their coach. If the problem cannot be solved they can come to me and I will help resolve the situation, but I follow protocol.

Now if Terry makes a decision without my knowledge, the least the president should do is inform me Terry has a proposal. Give me a chance.

MM: Did Terry’s appointment get the blessings of the executive board or does the president have power to arbitrarily appoint him in his personal capacity?

Ow: I think you should ask the former CEO Logan Raj. Under the constitution there are specific roles for the president.

MM: Well you guys are here maybe you can help clarify this for us?

Mahesh: We’ve been asking for a copy (of the constitution) and we’ve not been given one.

MM: Seriously, none of you have a copy? (laughter)

MM: On Paul Lissek’s appointment, we understand he hasn’t been coaching indoor hockey for close to two decades. How was he hired?

Ow: When Terry proposed Lissek, he said he’ll do it for free or minimal cost. I agreed.

I was willing to try him out for four days because we don’t have a coach for indoor hockey. Three weeks later I found he is being paid six and a half times the original amount we agreed on.

MM: Who gave the approval for Lissek’s salary?

Ow: Former CEO Logan Raj gave it. I don’t think he had the right to do so.

MM: With these interesting revelations can we maintain the reason for your departure is not for health reasons?

Ow: My illness is the main reason. I have a degenerative disease but my heart towards hockey is more. The only agenda I have is wanting to give back to the game I got so much from. I came from a very poor family and the only thing I can give back to hockey is to serve. Getting players and coaches to come together for a common cause. Not for money. My vision was to break into the top eight or 10 in the world and bring back the glory days. The highest level we achieved in Olympics was eight and fourth in the World Cup.

MM: How’s your relationship with the president?

Ow: Good friends. But in hockey we have different opinions on different ways of doing things. I follow structure and am transparent. I need to be there because the corporate circle in my company demands that.

MM: What are your thoughts on Soon Mustafa?

Ow: We played together at the Olympics. He was a good and disciplined player. He’s served the country 10-12 years. If you ask me I think he is capable of holding his ground as coaching chairman. I wish him all the best.

Selected questions and remarks from the floor.

Satwant Singh: Is there any truth you aspire to be MHC president?

Ow: Definitely no. If I wanted to be president I would’ve stood for deputy president and not vice president.

Fook Loke: I respect Datuk Ow for what he’s done but looking at the situation, the technical director has no respect for the coaching committee.

Ex-internationals present:

T. Pathmarajah, Datuk N. Sri Shanmuganathan, Teh Sieu Bee, Datuk Poon Fook Loke, Mary Soo, M. Mahendran, M.A. Sambu, Balbir Singh, Gurmit Singh and former MHF secretary and international umpire Datuk G. Vijayanathan.