Bardhan Cup tournament’s talented players go unnoticed!

Bardhan Cup deserves better recognition

The 61st Bardhan Cup (more than six decades old for Indian footballers but limited non Indians allowed to compete) is in going for the last 3 weeks and moves quarterfinal stages next week.

Played in four zones comprising 3 teams in each zone - 12 teams are competing (KL, Putrajaya, Pahang, Selangor, Police, Perak, Kedah, Penang, Perlis, Johor, Malacca and Negri Sembilan.)

I went for three matches (PKNS ground, Pulapol and Ipoh) and saw several talented players in this Under-23 competition.

Sadly, I did not see talent scouts from FAM, States or clubs present.

As far as I know the talent scouting system does not exist in Malaysia not only in football but for other sports popular sports like hockey and athletics, despite my numerous calls for the Ex International Association, State Associations and clubs to pursue the matter.

FA of Malaysia had about two talent scouts under the NDFP, who hardly went around and don’t know if they still exists.

Only PJ City FC was an avenue for these players in Bardhan Cup to look forward to progress further. But PJ City, who were bent on developing local talent but decided not to continue in the M-League this season with the intake of nine foreign players allowed for teams in M-League. 

In fact, a majority of PJ City players including former national player not so long ago, 28-year-old N. Thanabalan and their coaching staff of P. Maniam, P. Somasundram and V. Murugan are with Harini FC in M3 (amateur) League.

The Bardhan Cup itself is well organised by the Malaysian Indian Sports Council (an affiliate of FA of Malaysia) and working closely with Malaysian Indian Football Association (MIFA), following all protocol of a professional league with the FA of Malaysia sanctioning the tournament and guiding them.

MIFA under previous president Datuk T. Mohan had done well to promote football among the Indians before passing the baton his former secretary, K. Anpananthan (a businessman), to carry on with the legacy left behind.

However, the absence of talent scouts is a crying shame because many talented players from this tournament are going to the wilderness and lost, while Malaysian football is more interested with heritage players and giving citizenship to foreign players who are in their 30s!

Selangor coach K. Ramachandran with Iconic former Perak and national player and coach

 Datuk M. Karathu in Ipoh on Sunday before the match between Perak and Selangor. Selangor won 3-1. Both Selangor and Perak have qualified for the quarterfinals.

When I was in Ipoh, I contacted former Perak and national player and coach, Datuk M. Karathu, to ask him if he was going for the match between Perak and Selangor.

To my surprise, he did not even know that the Bardhan Cup was ongoing, let alone that there was match in Ipoh that evening.

 I invited him to come and watch the game and immediately agreed to come.

 After just watching the game for ten minute he commented: “There are several talented players here who with proper coaching can progress far.

 “Sadly, there is no talent scouts even from the clubs,” he said with a tinge of sadness.

 And that MIFA had honoured people like Karathu, Datuk Santokh Singh and Datuk N. Thanabalan  in 2017 and they not used or informed of the Bardhan Cup, is indeed surprising.

Hopefully with the Bardhan Cup moving to the quarterfinal stages this week, they will be some effort to get the relevant coaches to come and watch the players in action and pick up the talented players  to help them in future of their football career.

 

SHEBBY GONE TOO SOON

SHEBBY LEAVES A LASTING IMPRESSION

By Tony Mariadass

LATEST UPDATE: 

Shebby's body which was in the wake from yesterday evening (Thursday) at the Nirvana Memorial Centre ib Skudai, Johor, was brought this morning  to the Loke Yew crematorium. The wake at the Sukhmani Sahib at the Loke Yew crematorium will be from 2pm and followed by the cremation ceremony at 4pm.

All wishing to pay their last respects are requested to strictly adhere to all Covid-19 SOPs in place.

FORMER national football defender Serbegeth (Shebby) Singh passed away yesterday evening  suspected from suffering a heart attack while cycling in Johor Baru.

Shebby who had turned 61 on Aug 20, indeed was a household name as a player and television pundit.

News of his passing away was indeed a shock, as he was still young and a considered a very fit person.

A national player from 1982 to 1991 who hails from Kluang, Johor, made his name with Kuala Lumpur whom he played from 1984 to 1990, where he won the Malaysia Cup for a hattrick time, League Cup and FA Cup.

At a reunion luncheon for the KL team in 2001, Shebby speaking on behalf of his teammates had said: “It was the close relationship among the players and officials that made us a family, and leading to our success.

"We were very lucky in the sense that we all gathered together as a team at the right place and right time and we had a great coach (the late Dr Josef Venglos) to mould us."

His teammates with the city team included the Singapore trios – Fandi Ahmad, K. Kannan and Malek Awab – and local players - Rashid Hassan, Mohamad Noor Basri, M. Pavalamani, Razip Ismail, Tang Siew Seng, Chow Siew Yai, Kamarulzaman Yusof, See Kim Seng, Nasaruddin Mat Din, Ramlan Askolani, S. Balachandran, Subadron Aziz Hashim Marman, Mat Zan Mat Aris, Saidin Osman, Lim Teong Kim, Nazim Din and the late Mohamad Zaid Jamil.

The man responsible for bringing Shebby to the bright city lights was the late KLFA and City Mayor, Tan Sri Elyas Omar and coach late S. Subramaniam.

 I played a small part in Shebby’s arrival in KL, as I as a rookie sportswriter went with Subramaniam to Kluang in 1983 to meet Shebby and his parents to offer him to play for KL.

 I have known Shebby personally since I covered my debut Sea Games in Singapore in 1983, when the former was turning out for the national team.

 Shebby was turning out for Johor from 1978 till 1983.

It was a weekend after the Sea Games in Singapore, that I drove coach Subramaniam to Kluang from Kuala Lumpur.

Subramaniam, a day before had called me and asked if I could follow him to Kluang and if I could drive him, as he was going alone to make a surprise visit on Serbegeth.

Obviously, I obliged, and the rest was history.

We arrived in Kluang and went straight to the LLN (now TNB) office, where Shebby worked.

Shebby was not in the office, as he was on holiday visiting his girlfriend then, former national athlete Harbans Kaur, whom he went on to marry.

We met a close friend of Shebby who works with him (a Chinese boy by the name of Ah Chew), who took us to Shebby’s home to meet his parents.

The late Subramaniam who passed away about five months ago, told Shebby’s parents that he wants to offer their son a professional football contract with Kuala Lumpur and asked their permission to allow him to move to the city.

The parents objected as they did not want to see their son move to KL and leave them, but Subramaniam assured them that Shebby will be looked after by Tan Sri Elyas and he personally will be responsible for the well-being of Shebby and he will look after Shebby like his own son.

And rest was history after Shebby returned home after his holiday in Penang and came to KL to meet Tan Sri Elyas and Subramaniam to sign up for KL.

But what followed, rocked Malaysian football as Shebby was banned by Johor FA for moving to KL without their permission and fine RM500,000.

Shebby served the banned and went on to play for KL after that where he made a name for himself and even captained the KL team.

Shebby and I became close friends, and I followed his playing career from KL moving on to Pahang (1991 – 1992), back to KL (1993-1994), Negri Sembilan (1994-1995) and Perak (1995-1996).

As a player, Serbegeth was a disciplinarian who trained hard, watched his diet, slept early, a teetotaler, never smoked and loved reading on football.

On field, he got his job done, although some players complained that he would be very vociferous and got into argument with his teammates.

He was just being very competitive and always wanted to give his best and win matches,

After his playing career, he made a name for himself as a football pundit and was still involved in football as coach of MyTeam, Technical Advisor of Malacca (2007), ‘Global Adviser’ for Blackburn Rovers (2012-13) and technical director of JDT.

As a pundit, his audience either loved him or hated him for his style of presentation.

But without doubt, he made his lasting impact.

Indeed gone too soon.

Condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.

Goodbye my dear friend Shebby.

 

 

ANOTHER NEW YEAR BUT SAME OLD SONG FOR MALAYSIAN SPORTS

ANOTHER NEW YEAR WITH A BROKEN RECORD

By Tony Mariadass

FOR as long as Malaysian sports try to achieve success through short term programmes, incompetent sports officials making key decisions with personal agendas as their priority, constant changes to programmes, coaches not having their say, external interferences, foreign coaches being bounced back and forth because of indecisiveness and a whole lot of decisions which are questionable, we will be facing disappointments over and over.

The problem in Malaysian sports is at the top. We need to make drastic changes where it needs to be done to put things right and wait for success.

Nothing happens over night and no magic wand can give you instant results.

Even long-term programmes planned by some associations are soon forgotten and want overnight results.

There is no short cut to success. Only hardwork, proper planning with the right qualified personnel helming programmes, with no interference, one or two Olympic cycles planning, patience, determination, proper and fair selection with the best players being given the opportunity – which means combing the length and breath of the country with more than 30 million population to look for new, the best and young talent to be given the opportunity - will there be a flicker of hope to see Malaysian sports make a turn around for the better.

It is pointless coming out with beautiful roadmaps, all looking great on paper and impressive launches, but not implemented with same vigour and commitment and more often these plans collecting dust on the shelves in some corner.

Talent scouting by ex-internationals for all sports should be immediately implemented to search for talent at every nook and corner of Malaysia.

Foreign players to be naturalised is NOT the answer.

Yes. sports these days is borderless. Maybe at worst we can resort to mixed parentage players, but it should be done with proper scrutiny and done by technical officials and not team managers and agents, who more often are more interested in the money they can earn with these dealings.

And national sports bodies alone cannot be held responsible for the ills of Malaysian sports.

The national bodies can come up with elaborate programmes, but the implementation of these programmes largely is the responsibility of the affiliates – besides states, districts, schools and even at the grassroot with the academies playing a huge role. It is collective effort.

It is pointless collecting data or making selections, but only to collect dust and not utilised.

Analysis and recommendations must be done by qualified technical officials and not team managers who hold a string of posts in their national body, which clearly makes their report a conflict of interest.

In fact, in many cases team managers have been the cause for the failure of teams but in their reports which is supposed to be transparent, switch the blame to everything and everybody else, but themselves.

There have been cases where team managers who are hardly qualified in the game make decision and get involved in line-ups and sometimes even naming players into the squad, both local, naturalised and mix-parentage.

Some heads of associations who have been dragged through mud for their incompetency in managing their state or national associations, still hold on to their post and even stand for elections in political parties.

Sports associations for many has become a platform to promote themselves and achieve their personal agenda rather than look into the promotion of the sports and taking it to the next level.

Failure after failure, controversy after controversy and incompetency, never sees them shun the limelight to continue to hold on to their sports portfolios.

Some even are heads of several sports bodies and more often is seen as a conflict of interest. But do they care?

And who are we to blame for this sad scenario in their Malaysian sports? None other than the affiliates who vote them in because of favours, positions and money promised.

How can Malaysian sports have any proper continuity, vision, or direction, when we have three Sports Ministers in one term!

Each one comes with their own agenda and the ones to suffer are the sports associations and athletes.

Some have even quit or prefer to be independent sportsmen or women because of all these uncertainties at the highest level.

Sports Associations themselves must start to stand on their own feet and manage their association like a company.

They cannot depend on the Ministry of Sports or National Sports Council (NSC) to be funding all their programmes and training of their athletes.

As National Sports Association (NSAs) they are responsible for their sports.

Any aid from NSC’s is welcome but that should not be their sole source of funding for their programmes and activities.

It is pointless in complaining that NSC is holding court when it comes to the training of their respective sports’ athletes, when the NSA’s themselves surrender to them.

Malaysian sports need a drastic overhaul immediately for it to have any hope in the future.

But are the National bodies, NSAs and the affiliates ready to make the bold move and change?

If not, stop mourning, groaning, and complaining and just accept that Malaysian sports is doomed.

A Very Happy New Year and sports bodies if you are making a resolution, make the right one that makes a difference. Otherwise, just sit back and continue to enjoy the ills of Malaysian sports.

Continue to look for excuses for the poor performances and blame it on Covid-19, the weather, lack of funding etc., as other nations with lesser means continue to soar and embarrass us.

The choice is yours. Either we move forward to year 22 or go back to 20!

 

MALAYSIAN HOT SPRING, SETAPAK AND MALAY MAIL FC CONNECTION SPURTS IN ILOILO CITY, PHILIPPINES

THE MALAYSIAN-PHILIPPINES CONNECTION AT MISS UNIVERSE PHILIPPINES

By Tony Mariadass

Miss Universe Philippines 2021 candidate, Kheshapornam Ramachandran, who emerged Miss Iloilo/Miss Universe Philippines contest recently, is half Filipina-half Malaysian/Indian Ilongga (local Iiloilo people known as) origin.

Kheshapornam, 20, was born in Malaysia – Hot Springs, Setapak – to former Kuala Lumpur football player R. Ramachandran and his Filipina wife, Rachel Empedrad.

They were married in 1992 in Kuala Lumpur and have three children. Kheshapornam is the youngest, who went to live with her grandmother in Iloilo when she was six.

 

She has two older brothers – Rama 30 (who is a Police Officer in Iloilo) and Dinesh, 28 (who is in Malaysia and played – leftback - for Selangor U-21 team from 2007 – 2010 before an ACL injury derailed him).

Ramachandran, a City Hall enforcement officer, sadly passed away in 2006 from complications resulting after contacting chicken pox.

 

Ramachandran met his wife, also known as Michelle, when the Kuala Lumpur Malay Mail FC team was invited to play in the inaugural President’s Cup in Iloilo City in 1991.

Ramachandran squatting first from left with the KL Malay Mail FC team for the inaugural President's Cup in Iloilo, Philippines.

KLMM FC who had emerged the Kuala Lumpur FA Dunhill League champions defeating a star-studded City Hall FC, were rewarded by FA of Malaysia to play in the President’s Cup – thanks to then FAM general secretary, the late Datuk Paul Mony Samuel.

 KLMM FC had five invitation players from the KL Semi-Pro team which included Ramachandran who travelled to Iloilo and emerged runners-up to the Chinese Taipei national team losing in penalty shootout after the game ended in a deadlock.

 The other guest players from the KL team included were Nazim Din, late Tommy Chong Kok Min, Badrul Isham Jalil and Badrulsham Ahmad.

Ramachandran first from left with the Kuala Lumpur team

 It was then KLMM FC player, A. Gunasegeran who met Michelle at a shopping complex and invited her to the final with her friends.

 Later, she was invited for dinner with some of the KLMM FC players by Guna and that was where she met Ramachandran and their friendship blossomed to love and marriage.

 “I first saw Rama at the game, and he was so shinny. But I got to meet him at the dinner, and he was a shy person. He asked for my phone number, and we kept in touch,” revealed Michelle how she met her husband.

 After Philippines’ successful stint at Miss Universe 2020 with Rabiya Mateo, the Miss Universe Philippines organisation is all set to appoint its new queen to represent the country at the upcoming 70th Miss Universe to be held in Costa Rica later this year.

 Among the many names coming up for Philippine Miss Universe, is Kheshapornam.

Among her feats include winning one of the crowns for runners-up during Mutya Ng Pilipinas Gold. She was also declared ‘Best in Swimwear’ and ‘Best in Evening Gown.’

She also won the right to represent the country in Miss Tourism Queen of the Year International in 2018. It was supposed to happen during the last quarter of 2018 or early 2019. Sadly, the organisers scrapped the staging of the international contest and Kheshapornam was left with no choice but to accept the fate of having an aborted pageant mission.

The athletic Keshapornam stands 175cm tall and is an avid basketballer, model, beauty queen and student leader from Iloilo National High School. She was supposed to have graduated from the Asian College of Aeronautics this June, where she is studying aeronautics engineering, but had to be postponed as her practical at the Manila International Airport has been deferred because of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Keshapornam with her mother and brother Rama

 Keshapornam in Malaysia during her visit recently

Aside from her physical prowess and interest in sports, she possesses an inner radiance of a sweet and passionate Ilongga, a great potential that allowed her to successfully achieve various beauty titles in her young age. She aspires to become a successful beauty queen and joining the national pageant is one step in achieving that dream.

Kheshapornam believes that physical beauty fades, but a good character remain with us including our virtues and positive perspective in life. A beautiful heart can touch lives and inspire people around us.

In an interview in Philippines recently she had said that the most important reasons for her to live a meaningful life is, “to live a life of virtues and sincerity. For me, living a meaningful life means being kind, generous and always willing to help other people in simple ways.”

“I engage myself in sports because I am a wellness advocate, I prioritize my studies since this is my pathway to a better future, and I work hard to become a beauty queen because I want to use this as a platform to inspire young people, to show them that great dreams are meant to be fulfilled when we have the heart to do something about it,” she added.

 

Her mother here in Malaysia, who is working as a nurse at a private clinic is so proud of her daughter and hopes she realises her dream.

“I sent her back to be brought up my mother in Iloilo when she was six as she was a girl and difficult for me to manage after my husband passed away so suddenly,” said Michelle when contacted.

“I am immensely proud of her achievement so far both academically and her pageant pursue. She intends to join the Philippines Air Force when she graduates. My older son, Rama, is a police officer in Iloilo, while my second son is here with me in Malaysia.

“It has been tough bringing up the children as a single parent and had to work hard to earn money for their education,” said Michelle worked as a cashier in a local pub called Online for six years before becoming a nurse.

“My brother-in-law, Subramaniam, had been supportive until he retired recently, and I had to work doubly hard to make end meet.”

 

 Rama's brother Subramaniam former national player from Selangor standing fourth from right

Asked if she plans to go to the International Miss Universe Philippines qualifying contest later this year when it permits, she said: “No, I can’t stand the pressure and I don’t want to pressure on my daughter too.

“The last time I watched her in a local contest online and I was so tensed, that I decided I will never watch. I wish her the best, my prayers for her always with her and to enjoy the moment,” said Michelle who las saw her daughter before the Covid pandemic.

“I plan to visit Iloilo again when it permits as I miss my two children and my family. I always return annually.”

Dinesh too said he was proud of his sister and if possible, want to be in Manila to lend her moral support.

“I am looking forward to meeting my baby sister soon as I miss her and my brother and also want to lend her support for the contest,” said Dinesh.

 

Dinesh front first left with local team Hotspurs FC

Indeed, Kheshapornam’s family, the people of Iloilo and the community of Hot Springs in Setapak, the KLMM FC team members and even Malaysians will be rooting for her as she is of Philippines-Malaysian blood.

All the absolute best Kheshapornam!