Malaysia: Hockey at Bukit Jalil Sports School is at the safe

He does not hog the limelight. He is not much talked about either. Or, one could hardly single out in the otherwise highly visible vast expanse called the Malaysian hockey horizon. He may of course be invisible to public at large, but not the wards he trains in their budding years. His hockey boys sparkle at higher levels rather consistently and hog the headlines every now and then. Talent hunters spot his boys with a striking regularity, they soon become a viable stuff for the nation’s duties. They strike gold at the Malaysian Junior League; and rather routinely obtain national caps.

We are talking about the be-spectacled Prakash, 43, the coach with the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) which had been started by the Malaysian government in 1996. Bestowed with two turfs for training, the School has produced a vast pool of players for the country, needless to emphasize bulk of them under the watchful eyes of Prakash.

Prakash has seen it all. From his wards graduating to ball boys first for the Hockey Majors — which the country never tired of hosting on the nearby Bukit Jalil National Sports Complex — to donning national colours. If ball boys to national team members are stuff of rag to riches stories, Prakash has many of them in his kitty.

“Yes, some of the team members of the ongoing Champions Trophy were ball boys for the 2002 World Cup staged on the same ground”, Prakash lets you know. And for any grassroot level coaches such observations come rather casually.

Prakash, a teacher by profession, has been training School and Club teams for about a decade before the Bukit Jalil Sports School beckoned in 2001. Prakash gives a perspective glimpse into the BJSS: “Certainly, the facilities here are better compared to other teams I happened to train before coming here from Penang. We avail here services

of specialist like dieticians and physiotherapists, besides expert advices from both MSN (Malaysia Sports Council) and ISN (National Institute of Sports) faculties. Boys feel the BJSS is the gateway to national teams and really work hard to achieve their dreams. Of course those don’t improve is counseled for other fields after about three years’ of scrutiny and assessment”.

About 60 boys of age 14 to 19 get hockey training in the BJSS.

One of the salient features of the BJSS is constant effort to get them right foreign exposure. Prakash took 16 of his boys to Brisbane (Australia) for practice session and matches against the State and various school teams. That was in 2003. Two years later his team came to India. At Bangalore the boys won all but six matches.

His Brisbane trip was marked by the trivia the boys had undergone. “For most of them it was the maiden foreign tour. They could not adopt to the food style. Most managed with lighter stuff”

A different experience awaited the boys at Bangalore. “They got only vegetarian breakfast, but the variety was so wide and the items were so tasteful that they ate like heaven”.

Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, Nabil Fiqri and Muhammad Razie, all in the present Champions Trophy squad, were part of the Brisbane team. Besides these three stars, Sevaraju Chandrakasi, who created ripples among the defenders with incisive goals, and

Md. Sukri are members of the present Champions Trophy team. These players were the products of the school, being incumbents for varying spells. As a mark of BJSS’s success story, 7 of its incumbents were in the CT2007 training squad; and 10 out of 30 in the current Junior National Training Squad. The junior side is now being trained by Paul Lissek and Gurmit Singh.

Prakash is thus a proud coach to purvey his products in both layers of national team. Prakash has with his Level III coaching credentials, but more than that this list of boys in the national reckoning gives him a spec of satisfaction.

BJSS is the current Malaysian Junior League Champions as well as Champions of the Knock Out League. The latter field consists of champions sides of various state teams. In the Knock Out finals, Prakash’s team defeated Tenaga Nasionals 2-1 for the top honour.

Prakash is now on the verge of getting promoted and the new assignment need not be associated with sports. the simpleton would take the things in his stride and it was amply clear when he said: “I am basically a qualified teacher”.

That may be future in store, but as of now, he is quite busy training the boys morning and evening, focusing on fulfilling the youngsters’ dream of knocking the doors of Malaysian teams. As far as BJSS is concerned, it is surely with the safe hands of Prakash.

When Prakash wold opt to other career opportunities and might leave the BJSS, his leaving BHSS might not again hog the headlines, but the knowledgeable would certainly remember his contribution at the grass root level. His role in shaping various national stars will be visible to those who have an eye for it.