Asia Cup Tit Bits here and there Part IV
It seems television is a big thing in Pakistan. There are two channels here, one is in Pasthuan language. There were two channels a couple of month ago for the Johar Bahru four-nation as well. Besides, there are four journalists from Bangladesh as well, a rare. Said one of them, “We have a foreign coach, we get to cover a foreign tournament; naturally more interest for hockey”#########.
Bangladesh really had a star in Rafiqul Islam Kamal in the past. I remember my interview of him taken during the 1995 South Asian Federation Games. Kamal also scored when India and Bangladesh drew in the first match of 1999 Asia Cup in KL. When I said this to a Bangladesh journalist, she said, “He was the last hockey star we had. “And perhaps first and last time we drew India”, she concluded with a wry y smile. ################
Yasudhasan of Malaysia is connected with indoor hockey. He is here as one of the bench officials. He says indoor complements outdoor games, we need to take the indoor as seriously as Europeans do. “Their programs are almost four decades old, you know”, he says. “The main problem here is we don’t evenhave officials to supervise indoor matches”
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Santrakasi Selvarajiu is nippy forward in the Malaysian team. Some of his class mates and friends, who are now in Singapore, are his ardent fans. They all now in Kuantan, took a room, come for all matches. In one of the breaks, Selvaraju visited them in their hotel, and had a nice time with them. ################
In the first two or three days, the stands were near empty. Malaysia’s victory over Japan and thus making it to the semis seemed to have done wonders. For the semifinals, three sides of the stands were nearly full, at least 3000 were there witness the Pakistan feat. This is the first international tournament in this coastal city. Hopefully, more people will come to know about hockey in future. A couple of eateries have also come up of late, another sign hockey is making its presence.############
All teams are staying in Hyatt Regency, a resort owned by the local royalty here. The resort is right on the face of the sea face, within 100 you feet can be wet with beach waters. The width of the beach is very less, which faces high mounds full of rich vegetations. It seems it is breeding season for monkeys. You see every size of them everywhere on the wooden trek that lines up between the beach and the mountain foot, tiny monkeys so active, all the time troubling the big ones. Pakistan’s videographer was spot on with a camera to shoot the scenes on the rest day. Good break from hectic hockey for him.###############
On the rest day, Wednesday, the Malaysian Hockey Federation gave an official dinner to all the teams and officials at Hyatt. It is such occasions media relish the most, as they get to meet players in a relaxed atmosphere, get lot of lighter things out of them. However, the MHF chose not to invite the media, at least those from outside the country.###############
After Bangladesh lost three matches on high score, all the Bangladesh journalists decided to go back. They were dejected. Another man dejected is Gerrard Rach, who said, They are also like Indian journalists, can’t take defeats. What I can do in six weeks, he said. I asked the Bangla journos, what was their expectation before they set for Kuantan. “We expected some draws and low scores”.