Back at One Again

Over the last 15 years of being involved in squash as a player and coach, I've been lucky to see Malaysia go from zero to hero with the success of Nicol, Beng Hee amd Azlan. I have also seen the good and bad adminstration of the sport as well as the administrators that came and went. I've gone through 4 presidents of the association and numerous committee members. But in all those years, I have seen one perception that never changes. And that perception will never change unless 2 things happens. What am I rambling about? It's the perception that we as in Malaysian are limited in our capabilities to develop world class athletes and that a foreigner is always the one to do it.

I've written on this in an earlier posting about the difference in salary and perks but what annoys me is that eventhough you are the best and acknowledged by people who are experts in the field, there will be some people who are smarter than the experts. These people are the same people who will preach that we need to develop our locals to be good at coaching by gaining knowledge, getting our certifications and be at par with the world but when the time comes to give us a chance to prove our capabilities, they turn their backs. What a bunch of hypocrites!! Worse still, they have no idea about the technicalities of the field but they can decide who is the capable or not. Incredible don't you think?

So as far as SRAM goes, the new management team is no better than the previous. Instead of focusing on the development of squash in the country, they are more focused on trying to fulfill the egos of certain people. There is no development of squash in the country except for high performance development. That is an area which need support from other areas like tournament structure, coaching structure, refereeing structure, volunteering structure and many more. Squash hasn't really reached the masses and is currently a minor sport in terms of participation in the country. It can't even support itself as an industry.

But why then does SRAM focus on high performance development? One reason is that it brings quick glory and fame to the sport. A world champion will make a sport get fabulous funding and support immediattely. It is also the only way for those people who are in it for the fame and to inflate their deflated egos. But what does it do for the sport in the long term? Nothing at all.

We have nothing to be proud of at the moment. Yes, Nicol is the world's best player and so is Beng Hee and Azlan who are world standard but they are not truly produced here. 12 years ago Malaysian squash started to bring in foreign coaches to produce players for the 98 Commonwealth Games in KL because we didn't have the expertise then. But even now we still claim that we do not have the people to do it. Why? What happened? The focus on the high performance development is the cause of it. Locals are treated as 2nd class people eventhough we can do it but no one trust us or believe in us.

I wonder how SRAM's vision of being a powerhouse in squash is going to happen. Developing the other areas must be their priority now if it is ever to happen. Nothing here is structured and we are relying on luck to come up with the players. Which would you rather have? One Nicol David and no one else for the next 10 years or 1 Natalie Grinham every years for as long as possible? Trying to get another Nicol is like looking for a needle in the haystack but it is much more possible to produce players who are good but not great. That is more important as constantly having good players will ensure that squash has a great future.

Are we heading there? I can sadly say no at the moment. The current management is more interested in their own personal gains and egos. Their aim is just to make their name while they can and then leave it to someone else to come in and do the same. The biggest losers will be the sport.


(This is my personal view and must not be construed as a fact)

Time Flies

How time flies.... By the time this is up, the year 2006 has passed by. So what has Malaysian squash achieved? And what does the new year hold? These are the reflections for 2006 and what might be in 2007.

Review 2006
Nicol has held the mantle of Malaysian squash at the highest ever, defending the World title and British Open title. She also won the Asian Games and has been ranked at no. 1 the whole year and is undefeated for almost 30 competitive matches. The only blot, which she will definately rectify in the future is the Commonwealth Games, where she failed to win a medal. But the failure has made her stronger and hence the results for the year. As for the rest of the professional women players, not much to shout about except for the World Teams where they reached the semifinals for the 1st time and the Asian Championship where they won the team title as well. Notable mention is that Tricia has gone into the top 30 since moving to Amsterdam. The rest are still lagging but they have time on their side.

The men still depends on Beng Hee and Azlan to lead the charge and they duly obliged by finishing 1-2 in the Asian Games. They also led the clean sweep at the Asian Championships where Malaysia won all four titles astake, thus becoming the only country to ever do so. Beng Hee is on a rise again at the tail end of teh year but Azlan ended the year on a disappointing note after a bright start. Nevertheless, they are still in the top 20. The rest of teh professional players have a huge gap to close with the highest ranked men after them only hovering above the top 100.

The junior side has always been a strong side for Malaysian squash but the quality has been lacking over the last few years. But still a good performance by the boys to finish 3rd in the World Junior Men's team event and yet the best performer was only able to reach the last 16 in the individual event. The strength of the team was depth, all 4 team memebers were of equal standard. But the fact is we still lack quality players to carry the torch from Azlan and Beng Hee left behind.

The girls are our strong point where Wee Wern won the Asian Junior individual title, Yan Xin who won the British U-13 and Low Wee Nee. They are the future for the girls side but nowhere as good as Nicol but better potential than the previous group that graduated to the seniors.

The numbers of juniors have increased tremendously but sadly the quality is totally lacking. Why is this so? Many factors are involved but hopefully we will be able to unearth a few gems from the quantity that we have. The platform is there, we now need to work to improve the quality of the players coming through.

SRAM went through a major revamp with many of the office bearers being replaced in the AGM. A.J. decided to retire after 20 over years of service in SRAM and that hurt the administration a bit. But with the new team coming in with new blood, their enthusiasm and youthfulness may just pull it through.

Preview of 2007

So what can the new year bring us? Nicol looks set to continue her dominance of the women's game and hopefully become a legend a the game. Beng Hee and Azlan definately continue to get into the top 10 and I wish them the best of luck and prayers. Tricia will be looking to break top 20 and dislodge Sharon as the number 2 in the country. The back-up boys willl continue to struggle in their quest to achieve their targets and so will the girls. A big dose of maturity will definately help them as well as desire to succeed.

Juniors will continue to try to attain the minimum world standard to enable Malaysia to have a chance of vying for honours internationally. Wee Wern is looking at top 8 in the World Junior Women and retaining her Asian Junior Title. The boys will be looking to reach the finals of the Asian Junior team event. There rest of the country should strive for the minimum of top 8 in the World Juniors and British Junior Open to enable us to continue to be competitive. Who will stand up and be counted for?


What is in store for SRAM with the new team? It's a little unclear at the moment but hopefully we will see some light at the end when the dust settles. SRAM needs to bring back some credibility back to the administration of the sport to enable them to achieve the goals they have set. If not, we are back to square one all over again.

It's been a while since I last posted anything here. Lately I have been to Taiping for some squash activities. Yes, you read it right, Taiping, that small and quiet town famous for it's Lake Gardens and Zoo. Been there the past 2 Sundays for some squash and meeting the New Club members. Prior to that, I conducted a coaching course there as well. The New Club is not new but was built in 1894. So it is the 1st club in Malaysia and they kept the name since then. It has 1 squash court and another one converted to a snooker room downstairs and gym above it. They have about 100 plus squash members and 1 court! During peak hours, members are allowed 20 mins per pair for squash and they have a timer that buzzes to indicate time is up. Don't think they would be able to finish a match in 20 minutes.

There is another place with 2 squash courts, the Rakan Muda Sports Complex in Bukit Jana. It was built as a community centre but the courts are under utilised. Nice set up and quite good workmanship as well. But the toilets are not in working order and no water cooler. So one need to bring along a large supply of water if they are going to play there. The complex has hostels, meeting rooms/lecture halls, wall climbing, skateboard area and many more things.

So in my 2 weekends there, I have been to the zoo which is quite big and not too bad in terms of animals. A lot of parts are under renovation but still open to people. No time for the Lake Gardens though. I also managed to have the famous curry mee in Sepetang, which is good. Also the mee kicap is delicious as well. My next trip there will be to Matang for seafood and visit the Lake Gardens.

That's all for now folks. I will be going to Ipoh for a referees course this weekend and Perlis on Monday for an evaluation.