JOHOR BAHRU: Titbits here and there 2
Pakistan Hockey Federation secretary Asif Bajwa is here too. He was following the team in Australia also. That is not the news. The news is the PHF sponsors five journalist for both Australia and Malaysia tours. Great publicity exercise indeed.
Malaysia match attracts maxium crowd here. Surprisingly, the crowd almost melted away after Malaysia defeated Korea, without waiting for India-Pak clash. There were more Pakistan supporters than India’s. It was indeed strange to see crowd go away before India-Pak match. The myth is slowly fading. For those who stayed India gave in return.
“Aaj to chhdo’’ was what Mukesh Kumar, Indian coach, told when entered the media room after Pakistan match. He was in a hurry to return to lodge before a man on press duty reminded him of call from media officer. He is handling the press well here, replying freely.
The internet in the media room went off for a while, putting local journalists in a jiffy. They could not file the report of home team, some had to rush to other places. Thankfully for India match, things were back in order.
Rana Mujahid, Pakistan coach, is a down to earth personality. He is not good at English, but tries his best. He enjoys his interaction with media, and is honest in his opinion. When this writer pointed out Pakistan is the most experienced team here, he expressed surprise, and said, it seems they had clubbed all under-18 and others, my team is not that experienced, he said frankly.
According to Manjit Singh, Secretary of Malaysian Hockey Confederation, six police men were deployed on the turf area as a preventive measure of any fight between India-Pakistan players. “Normally we don’t do this, this time we did” he said. One police man below the scoreboard, one each near bench, another on the backside of net were seen.
Pakistan’s Sulaiman Md was allowed to play against India despite him getting two yellow cards in the previous match. Normally, two yellow cards means a red card, the player cannot play the next match. However, he lived upto his reputation today also, getting a green in the 15th minutes itself.
Indian team is spotted in a nearby Gurudwara the other day. The Sikh temple which is next to Mariamman Temple, both very close to the team’s hotel, is celebrating Gurnanak’s birth anniversary, and is buzz with activities. But surprisingly we have not seen much of Sikhs in the stadium, a strange thing otherwise.
Indian team here in Johor Bahru is without a trainer and videographer, still defeating Pakistan 1-5! Indian hockey is instinctive hockey, one can say.
Omnipresent Tayyab Akram is here, with Tahir Zaman. Both are conducting training course for about 20 Malaysian coaches, out of which 10 will be selected for further FIH training. Bald-headed Gurmeet Singh, former assistant coach of Malaysian team, too attends the course.