COMMENTARY
Level
Field
IT IS time we look for talent in an area which has been ignored — orphanages.
IT IS time we look for talent in an area which has been ignored — orphanages.
It would be a noble effort
because it would mean giving orphans hope of a new life through sports.
They will value the opportunity
and will fight to make the grade.
Knowing pain, suffering and
without parental love, they need no motivation to make the best of the
opportunity.
No disrespect to our sportsmen
and women, but many are spoon-fed and hardly experienced suffering or made
sacrifices. They are easily contended and more often than not, take things for
granted.
But for orphans to make the grade, we need sports associations to
embrace the idea and comb the length and breadth of West and East Malaysia to
identify orphanages where talent identification can be done.
According to UN statistics, in
2010 there were 410,000 orphans, presumably only those with no parents, in
Malaysia.
In 2013, Association of Women
Lawyers Malaysia vice-president Goh Sui Lin, said in an interview, there were
more than 400,000 children who have been orphaned in Malaysia. Are we ready to
assist sports-talented orphans?
This exercise is not going to
see instant results.
It is going to take time,
planning and execution, with the right people involved from management, talent
identification, programmes and coaching.
Just to draw reference to
football, which has so many private football academies and coaching programmes
for grassroots, and yet we do not find clubs, state or national associations
really tapping these channels to identify talent.
For instance, at the 12th RSC
Datuk Chu Ah Nge International Junior Football tournament last weekend at the
RSC Bukit Kiara Sports Annex, there were 1,000 participants, ranging in age
from six to 16.
The tournament, launched in
2005, serves as a platform for competition among all age-group teams in the
Royal Selangor Club, under the RSC Junior Soccer Development Programme (JSDP).
JSDP has 200 children of
various age-groups training every weekend under calibre coaches headed by
technical director V. Kalimutu, an ex-international who was a member of the
1972 Munich Olympics qualifying squad.
The international tournament
invites selected teams from similar junior development programmes and football
academies around the country and overseas.
Sadly, there were no scouts or
coaches from the big clubs or state associations at the two-day event.
Surely, there must have been
more than a dozen players, at least, from the 1,000 competing who had potential
to be groomed to become stars of tomorrow.
Malaysia has a population of
30,188,000, of which 9,426,000 are children under the age of 18, and 2,499,000
under five.
Surely the future of Malaysian
sport lies here.
In China, although millionaire
coaches and players are the norm now, smaller teams are doing nicely in the
shadow of their bigger, well-heeled neighbours.
These minnows, in spite of
taking a low-key approach, produce their own players, thus promoting Chinese
talent.
These low key clubs transfer a
lot of players to other clubs to make their balance sheets healthy.
Despite finding it hard to
attract fans, a small club like R & F finished creditably in the China
league, taking sixth place.
These clubs look at long term
planning, unlike in Malaysia where they are focused on the short term.
As long as states and clubs
continue in this vein, Malaysian sport is not going to realise its true
potential.
Perhaps, it is time to try
something new. Looking at the orphans could be the way to go. What have we to
lose?
TONY is a sports
journalist close to
four decades of experience
and is passionate about
local sports.
He can be reached at
tmariadass@gmail.com
four decades of experience
and is passionate about
local sports.
He can be reached at
tmariadass@gmail.com
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