Brilliant Article
Got the article below from thesun’s website. It’s about the local doldrum afflicting the sports fraternity in malaysia. Read it. (article by R. Nadeswaran)
If you happen to walk into the offices of the British-American Tobacco company in Petaling Jaya, you cannot miss the huge black and white photographs that adorn the walls of the meeting rooms on the ground floor.
Two of them, if I am not mistaken, were taken in 1965, featuring our first Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year.
A beaming Manickavasgam Jegathesan and Mailvaganam Rajamani are pictured receiving their awards from the then prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj.
The tobacco company had sponsored the annual awards and made significant contributions to sports in cash and kind, until the do-gooders came along with the phrase - sports and cigarettes don’t go together.
The significance of these two photographs is that they brought so much joy, pride and happiness to ordinary Malaysians.
In an era where they ran for the King and country and where allowances and incentives were treated as the dreaded four-letter word, Jega and Rajamani excelled in their chosen field - athletics.
Elsewhere, in the reception area of the Pangkor Laut Hotel on the island is yet another black and white photograph of Tan Yee Khan, Ng Boon Bee, Teh Kew San, Tan Aik Huang, Tan Aik Mong and Yew Cheng Hoe, the players who brought home the Thomas Cup in 1967.
Fastforward to 1975, and there are yet a few black and white photographs in my collection, with Sri Shanmuganathan, K.T. Rajan, Brian Sta Maria, Wong Choon Hin, Dutchman Ties Kruze and Pakistani wizard Shahnaz at a reception at the then Merlin Hotel for players who took part in the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
Clearing the cupboard the other day, I retrieved the official round-neck T-shirt sold during the 1975 World Cup, which was then sold for just RM5. Also discovered was an Australian cricket shirt presented 10 years ago by former wicketkeeper Ian Healy.
These photographs and memorabilia rekindle the days of black and white TV, Bata’s Badminton Master shoes, (sold at a premium price of RM3.90 - almost double what the Fung Keong shoes cost), Dunlop Maxply rackets with a wooden shaft, Bluebird shuttlecocks, Grandslam T-shirts which at RM30 each were then unaffordable for ordinary mortals.
The glory days of Malaysian sports were littered with extraordinary performances, grit and determination and the will to go faster and leap higher.
The Merdeka Football Tournament was the showcase of Asian football talent, with teams from all parts of the continent eagerly awaiting the invitation from Malaysia.
Then there were the officials like Tong Poh Nyen, Kwok Kin Kheng, Paul Murugesu, G. Vijayanthan and Lum Mun Chak, who were volunteers in the true sense of the word.
I remember Vijayanthan doing his financial work at the Selangor Education Department in Swettenham Road, running to the bank to pay in monies collected for the day and in between, typing letters and then dropping them off at the General Post Office opposite the Padang.
Royalty and politicians who held posts were there because of their love for the game - not for the glory or the publicity.
The late Harun Idris, then a magistrate in Klang, drove players after the court adjourned for the day, all the way to Kuala Lumpur to play for TPCA in the Selangor league.
Raja Azlan Shah, during his days as a High Court judge, used to walk from his chambers to the Selangor Padang to watch top hockey teams in action.
At the end of the day, it was the passion that drove players and officials. No rewards, no cash incentives, no overseas training stints, in short, nothing.
How and why has Malaysian sports dwindled? Talk to the old timers and they give a variety of reasons, including the education system, the quest for academic excellence, and of course the big bucks injected into sports these days.
Didn’t Jega excel at both? Didn’t Cheryl Dorall, one-time holder of the women’s 100m record also graduate from the University of Malaya and became one of the top-notch newspaper editors?
Didn’t Ratnalingam represent Malaysia at cricket and still become Malaysia’s first Rhodes scholar? Didn’t Alex Delilkhan captain the Malaysian cricket team and yet go on to become professor of anaesthetics at the University of Malaya medical faculty? Weren’t Aik Huang and Aik Mong graduates from university?
We seem to have forgotten the word “passion” - a desire to excel in whatever field we choose to enter.
But when mediocre performances at domestic levels are rewarded handsomely, is there any need to push yourself to excel?
R. Nadeswaran is Deputy Editor (special reporting and investigations) at theSun. He can be contacted at citizen-nades@thesundaily.com.
