Manchester United concluded their tour with a win against the Hong Kong national team 3-1, but it was not a performance that a United fan would want to shout about. In their first stop and match in Malaysia, United played the ASEAN all-stars and lost.

ASEAN All-Stars (AAST) defeated Manchester United 1-0 here at the Bukit Jalil stadium in Malaysia on 28 May 2025. It was a perfect end or gift to the recently concluded ASEAN summit which started on 26 May and ended on 27 May in Kuala Lumpur. If this was a marketing ploy, it worked! Malaysia and the organisations involved – Maybank and Pro-Events – pulled it off well.

Hunger For An All-Stars Game

The all stars game is something different for Malaysians and even Asians compared to Americans who have an all-stars game in basketball and American football, in basketball in the NBA, it is held every February between the domestic players there.

For those in Malaysia, the best all stars game (football) ever was the one in 1982, I was 12 at that time, it was after the FIFA World Cup in Spain. It was an excellent match between the Rest of the world v Europe All-stars, Europe all stars won it 3-2. I remember the brilliant Falcao of Brazil playing an exquisite match and wearing tennis shoes!
It was played in New Jersey, the East Rutherford stadium in USA, which was an artificial turf. Ever since then, we all have an interest in an all stars game, deep down we generation-X starved sports enthusiasts crave for an all-stars game since that great year of 1982.

ASEAN Citizens Come Together In Rare Moment

This was a rare moment for us in South-East Asia to come together and for 90 minutes we did, that feeling is rare and you will never get that primal or visceral feeling ever, it can only happen in a sport and to be precise, football. A 70,00 plus crowd cheered both teams at Bukit Jalil stadium in Malaysia and maybe others watching it on TV in the region, it was fairly an open match. The ASEAN all stars also had some players from Australia too, but take nothing away from the all-stars team as majority of the 26 players were from South-East Asia.

Overall 26 players were used by the all-stars and to think this was a team that was formed from scratch and to add to that, some players who were initially selected could not make it and had to be replaced, shutting out a Manchester United team who used 27 players on the field is something we in South-East Asia have to be proud of.

Interestingly the ASEAN All-Stars kit is now being sold after the match by kit makers Al-Ikhsan, they are selling it online with deliveries starting on 15th June. It is a limited edition merchandise at Al-Ikhsan, a vibrant purple with orange and yellow trims, a smart move by the organisers as it is not the official colour of any national team from South-East Asia, so this neutral pick is another marketing coup and the colour scheme and design is great … at least for me.

Manchester United Sink Further

For Manchester United, it was probably a bad time for them to make a tour, after a defeat against Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final, a depressed mood has set in to the club despite the Premier League win in their last match against Aston Villa. A defeat with all-stars was bad enough, but a controversy surrounding Manchester United players Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho showing the middle finger after an alleged verbal abuse on Diallo was a PR disaster. This would not have happened during Sir Alex Ferguson’s time, though nobody knows what Garnacho’s excuse was as he was showing the sign in various pictures. Even Diallo, there was a pic of him showing it at the stadium, though this later pic cannot be verified.

Diallo has stated that his mother was verbally abused by a “fan” if you can call that person a fan. Nobody knows what happened, even if this was the case, Diallo could have shown restraint. United are breaking at the seams and all these cost cutting by Sir Jim Ratcliffe is causing instability at the club and a loose structure, with key personnel at Manchester United having been forced out.

What Manchester United fans should be asking is: Why a tour just a few days after the Premier League ended? This is not a pre-season tour (Which will happen later in the United States), the players did not have time to recover from jet-lag and from what I saw they clearly did not want to be here in the meet the fan session. A pre-season tour is when players are getting ready for next season, the dust for last season has hardly settled.

To Settle A Debt

This was a tour to re-coup some money and pay their sponsor a penalty, Adidas contract dictates that they cannot be out of the Champions league in successive seasons, this meant that United had to pay £10 million to Adidas for their absence, so this was why this rushed tour happened.

Looking back, Manchester United might regret this tour, as from a public relations point of view, this might be more damaging than the 10 million. The board and management, however, seem not to care. This tour might have been a death knell to the further eroding fan base of Manchester United.

This is the age of not just club fandom, but also player, where fans don’t follow a club anymore, but just a player. Cristiano Ronaldo is an example of that. Already there is a talk among United fans in Malaysia that they will not support United until Diallo and Garnacho get out of the club.

Every time we think Manchester United cannot get any lower, they do, the players were unfriendly and just plain arrogant. Manchester United have a lot to do in the coming season and even the years ahead, but with a skeleton crew in-terms of squad and even overall staff, this might even take another decade. – NMH

Other articles by this writer:

Malaysian Football – What Now? – Part 1

PICKLEBALL, SPORT’S NEW RAGING FOREST FIRE

Commonwealth Games: Malaysians Unite After Decision Not To Host

Let The Commonwealth Games Begin, But At What Cost?

The post When The ASEAN All-Stars Shocked The Red Devils first appeared on NMH.

Hello? (Hello, hello, hello) / Is there anybody in there? / Just nod if you can hear me / Is there anyone home? / Come on … Those are the starting lyrics of the famous song by the popular rock band Pink Floyd. It has been more then a month since the Olympics, it seems like Malaysian Sports has come to a standstill after the Olympic debacle.

Malaysians seem blank (going by social media comments) now and given up on Malaysia going forward in the Olympics or the Asian Games or Commonwealth Games for that matter. We have the SEA games coming up this December in Thailand, we have the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games coming up in 2026 in Japan and Scotland and other marquee events like the Thomas Cup.

The Para-Olympics brought gold though and have brought gold on numerous occasions before, so been there done that, but the Olympic gold still eludes us, but the most disturbing thing in the Olympics was not that we did not win gold, but the cynicism and hostility towards our cyclist Azizul Hasni Awang when he was disqualified. It was as if some Malaysians were so frustrated, as they were pinning hopes on him to win gold that they could not handle the bitterness that Malaysia now left the Olympics without any gold. Social media was rife with unjust criticism towards him, strangely this was “Muhibbah” that we did not want. If there were keyboard warrior games, I am sure Malaysia would win gold every time.

Malaysians were not to blame, well for the unjust criticism towards our great cyclist who has won gold at World Championship and Asian level, yes they should be blamed for making unjust comments, but for feeling frustrated on the whole about Malaysian sports and Olympics…a big no.

Badminton has been an Olympic sport since 1992, yet we have not won gold. We won the Thomas Cup last in 1992 and in that time South Korea, Japan and India have become a powerhouse in badminton, both men and women’s category. Even Singapore won a World Championship in badminton before us and that was in the men’s singles category, the man was plucked from Penang at a young age (Low Kean Yew) and groomed by Singapore.

Hockey, we are going down and down and the recent 8-1 drubbing by India in the Asian Champions Trophy in China and lost to China, yes China! 4-2! shows we are getting worse … or have we reached rock bottom already? India did not field their full team against Malaysia, they went on to win the trophy beating China 1-0 in the final, yes China! The game was tight and India held on because of their tactical discipline and determination, but again … yet again another minnow (China) is now bound to be a giant and regular contender by the looks of it in hockey.

We once easily qualified for the Olympics and World Cup hockey tournament, now we are missing it and struggle to qualify for it. Football …well, less said the better, except for sports like bowling and squash and in some ways Karate, we are not going anywhere in mainstream sports. In track and field, we used to be the kings in South-East Asia, not anymore. To make matters worse, in sports like Taekwondo, there are more than three international bodies registered in Malaysia.

The Aftermath, but what now?

I could go on and on, but what and where are we going now? What is the road map? After the apology by Hannah Yeoh, our Youth & Sports Minister, on Malaysia’s performance in the Olympics, nothing much has been stated, but also what happened to the respective sports associations? Why have the respective chiefs not come out and given a road map for the years ahead?

The debacle of Goh Jin Wei our badminton player who did not get her coach for the Olympics in Paris, because he could not get accreditation due to limited passes is unbelievable and what happened to that? Where is the report on that and what is being done on it? OCM (Olympic Council of Malaysia) President Tan Sri Norza Zakaria who incidentally is the Badminton president of Malaysia said his accreditation is separate and that he has some passes for friends and family … but could he not given one for Jin Wei’s coach? How is this acceptable? Jin Wei won two World Badminton Junior Championships in 2015 and 2018, surely, she is a priority.

Everything is quiet now, meanwhile Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines have won gold in the Olympics so far, Philippines winning their first gold in the 2024 edition and added another one later in that Olympics.

It is going to be another ground hog day I am sure when Malaysia steps up to another major sporting event, but what are the powers that be doing? Should we have a new governance structure for sports? Some sports association like the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have in the constitution (through their parent body, FIFA) that states that governments cannot interfere with the association’s activities or they will get banned, but if funding comes from the government, associations can work internally with government and still give a KPI. This can go for other associations too if they have a sports body with the same constitution.

The OCM also operates on a separate constitution, the Olympics attire debacle was … God, no words to describe it, it was a joke, a shambles and should not have happened, not in this time and age. Do we even care? Does anyone realise how bad this was? It is frightening to see that the powers that be are numb to the mediocrity of our administrators and they in turn are comfortably numb.

Something drastic has to happen, what and how? Ban politicians from having sporting posts? No, that cannot be the answer, there could be one idea that might be controversial, but might be the way.

Time For Chartered Sporting Administrators

We always had great sports administrators who held various posts at international and Asia level, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had a few great leaders. From Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia’s first Prime Minister) to Hamzah Abu Samah, the late Sultan Ahmad Shah and even some great General Secretaries like Peter Velappan who helped to structure and revamp the FIFA World Club Cup. The late Sultan Azlan Shah was also instrumental in the development of hockey and after his death, hockey seems to have been going downhill too. During Tunku Abdul Rahman, Sultan Azlan Shah and Hamzah Abu Samah’s reign, Malaysia had a golden era in football and hockey. Even now the current General Secretary of the AFC is a Malaysian, Windsor John.

We had great characters, like the great Gurchan Singh, who managed to fight the Japanese during the second world war, he was also the founder of the Malaysian Cycling Federation and founded the Asian Cycling Federation. He was also responsible for the first velodrome, cinder track for athletics and a hockey pitch. He unfortunately died in car accident in Batu Pahat, Johor in 1965. I could go on and on about various administrators in sports, but this is not what the article is about.

All this strong tradition and values should not be lost, we should come up with a qualification for a Chartered Sports Administrator (CSA). All those who have this qualification can hold positions like General-Secretary or even the post of President in sports associations, make this compulsory that to hold these two positions, you need to have these qualifications. This should be passed in parliament, in this way it is a positive move, rather than saying politicians should not be allowed, all are welcome, but by having this qualification, it shows dedication and commitment.

The royalty can still be patrons and, to be honest, they still hold weight because of their status and power and do not need to sit as President, they can be an adviser or patron. This does not mean things will change for the better immediately, but a licensing system for administrators will help. Even in coaching though, there is a licensing system, anyone can start or have a football academy or coach in any sport without license, this should also change if we aim to professionalize sports and raise the standards.

It will raise the quality of sports administration and coaching, gone are the days of great individuals, the likes of Hamzah Abu Samah or Peter Velappan and times change and now we need to professionalise, not by just saying it, but by making some concrete steps. I think the powers that be are taking things for granted, we are becoming worse because participation levels generally in sports is getting weaker.

When you have mass participation, we can get the cream of the crop, but right now we are not getting that. The politicking in associations should also stop, things need to be checked like biasness in selection in schools in-terms of sports selection and how are they selected? How can the Ministry of Youth & Sports work with the Ministry of Education? Is there a KPI? All these should go to the education curriculum of the mooted CSA as I mentioned here, those words “Majulah sukan negara kita” on our broadcast stations had some meaning before, we need to bring that feeling of being proud of Malaysia and sports is an important part of that equation. – NMH

The post Sports In Malaysia Seems Comfortably Numb. What Is Going On? first appeared on NMH.

Manchester United find themselves in a state of uncertainty despite ending the season with a victory over Brighton in the Premier League. The pressing question is whether Erik Ten Hag will remain at the helm, regardless of the outcome against Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

United have faced similar predicaments with previous managers like David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick, and now Ten Hag. Aside from Rangnick, who accurately assessed the club’s issues but wasn’t given time, and Mourinho, who secured two trophies, the rest have struggled to make a lasting impact.

Missing out on next season’s Champions League adds to the club’s woes. In their previous league encounter with Manchester City, United were thoroughly outclassed, losing 3-1 and trailing in every statistical category: shots on goal, passes, corners, possession, and passing accuracy.

Managerial Merry-go-round

Finding a suitable replacement for Ten Hag remains a daunting task. Elite managers like Tuchel or Nagelsmann seem unlikely or unsuitable candidates. While Abel Ferreira and Ruben Amorim are potential options, they are relatively unproven at this level. Other potential candidates include former United staff Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick, now managing Ipswich and Middlesbrough respectively, but neither possesses the pedigree required for the role at least for now.

Dissent within the dressing room exacerbates the situation, with several players reportedly overpowering managers. Resolving this issue is crucial, as it undermines any managerial authority. Key players like Rashford, Martial, Shaw, Lindelof, Maguire, McTominay, and Antony may need to be moved on.

FA Cup Final – Last Throw Of Dice For Ten Hag?

Ten Hag’s struggles are partly due to his reliance on a pressing style that the current squad cannot execute effectively. Ten Hag’s success at Ajax was facilitated by a manageable squad and a robust youth development program and a club though popular not a giant like United, conditions are obviously different at United.

United’s financial mismanagement further compounds the problem. The club has spent heavily on poor signings and lacks the resources of clubs like City. Managers like Luis Enrique, who adapted Barcelona’s style post-Guardiola, might offer tactical flexibility but come with volatility.

The pressing game demands specific player types and is physically taxing, making squad assembly challenging. Ten Hag’s recruitment has not aligned well with these demands, leading to subpar performances. His reluctance to adopt a defensive formation suggests a denial of United’s limitations, a trait Mourinho, known for pragmatic approaches, did not share. Look at Real Madrid they play classical football minus press or counter press and all that, but play a football with grit, technique and culture that is built on success from the past each time and their past is as recent as two seasons ago with great success.

What Formation?

In the FA Cup final against City, United would be wise to consider more conservative formations like 3-5-2 or 4-5-1. However, this could be seen as an admission of inferiority, clashing with the club’s traditional attacking ethos established by Sir Alex Ferguson.

The decline arguably began with Moyes, who deviated from the “United way.” Mourinho, despite not adhering to this philosophy, at least delivered trophies. The club now faces a dilemma: maintain attacking traditions and risk continued failure, or adopt a more pragmatic approach to maximize resources.

Potential managerial candidates like De Zerbi or Thomas Frank could be gambles, akin to Ten Hag. Frank, in particular, might succeed with the right support, possibly from a strong assistant like a former player. Gareth Southgate, with his experience working alongside technical director Dan Ashworth, is an intriguing option but lacks recent club management experience.

Ultimately, United’s priority must be a thorough squad overhaul. Without addressing the player issues, any managerial appointment is unlikely to succeed. This reconstruction is vital for the club’s long-term stability and success. – NMH

The post FA Cup Could Be Do Or Die For Ten Hag’s Future At Manchester United first appeared on NMH.

We have been down this road before, many times and last month in April saw Malaysia take another turn for the worse, losing all three football matches in the Asian Under-23 Championship held in Qatar.

Malaysia lost all their Group D matches to Uzbekistan 2-0, Vietnam 2-0 and Kuwait 2-1. Add this to the Asian Cup in Qatar in January losing to Jordan 4-0, Bahrain 1-0 and drawing with South Korea 3-3, finishing bottom of the group just like in the Asian Under-23 Championship. Yet here, in the case of the Asian Cup, the national team were treated like heroes despite finishing bottom of the group.

Youth & Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh even gave an incentive… (reward ?..not sure what it is but she says it is not a reward) to FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) for their efforts in Qatar. She defended the the RM5 million allocation (stating it was not a reward) saying that Malaysia qualified for the Asian Cup on merit after a long time and it was “To prepare for future competitions”.

Malaysian Football Nearly Missed Out

That maybe, but it was because the teams were increased from 16 to 24 and even at that, Malaysia nearly missed out. Giving an incentive after finishing bottom of the group is no way to encourage a sports federation, a PR perspective would have been better, say after a month of the Asian Cup debacle?

Sadek Mustaffa, a football critic and senior lecturer for sports science and recreation at UiTM was also critical of the reward and Datuk Dr. Pekan Ramli, who is the Higher Education Ministry Sports Sector Deputy Secretary also joined in. Dr Pekan said the public feels that the government is rewarding the national team for failure, and this is the cause of their negative reaction.

The timing of the RM5 million was also lost, rewarding them to finish bottom of the group, but the nation (well maybe some of the citizens) and by the looks of it the Sports Minister were swept by the euphoria of drawing with South Korea. While that is a one-off for South Korea, for Malaysia this will be spoken maybe for the next few decades just like the 1980 Olympic football Asia final. In that epic moment we beat South Korea 2-1 on aggregate and qualified for the Moscow Olympics.

We did not go for the Olympics because of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, instead Kuwait were willing to take our place and the rest as they say is history. FAM even targeted the 2014 World Cup and the failure was discussed in parliament in 2017.

Getting back to South Korea, they will get on with their lives and probably qualify for yet another World Cup and beat the likes of Germany as they did before. Malaysia meanwhile will pick up breadcrumbs like this and celebrate the mediocrity of it all and ignore results that are painful and live in denial, well at least that is what it looks like.

Doing Things Right Or Doing The Right Things?

What happened to various projects by FAM? Like the F-30 project? So an update on that, According to NST as reported on 11 November 2023 Malaysia have concluded phase one of this project and are now going into phase two.

At the FAM website the goals are more clear, it states in Bahasa Malaysia:

Peta hala tuju dengan tempoh 12 tahun itu dibahagi kepada tiga pelan strategik, iaitu fasa pertama dari tahun 2019 hingga 2022 untuk membina asas yang kukuh dari sudut tadbir urus, pertandingan dan pembangunan modal insan serta infrastruktur.

Basically it says that the first phase with the first four years of the 12 years, starts from 2019, which was from 2019-2022, in laying the foundation in administration, competitions, development and solid infrastructure. It goes on to the second phase which is from 2023-2026 and finally 2026 to 2030. It ends with Malaysia aiming to become a top five nation in football in Asia.

The KPI are all about qualifying for competitions, granted this is a big improvement from before, but are we doing things right or are we doing the rights things? We could choose a lot of things wrong strategically and look at that at micro levels and do it right and follow that KPI, it can be something that can lead to disaster strategically.

KPI

The KPI (Key Performance Index) seems to be more competition oriented and how did we address the first phase at grassroots level from 2019-2022 during the Covid period?

What did FAM do to rectify the football situation during that period? Should this project be extended further considering this was a world event nobody expected? There is a generation here that would have missed out on football or even dropped out of it.

Now getting back to the previous article in NST in 2023, Gianni Infantino the President of FIFA launched the second phase of this project in conjunction with FAM, but the question arises, with Covid being a stumbling block and player development stifled during this period.

How was the first period viewed by FAM and deemed to meet the project goals? Surely qualifying for the Asian Cup cannot be the barometer of measurement? What and how did we improve at the grassroots levels that is going to be the future and how did we manage to go around these issues? Yes, other countries suffered too, but personal goals are to compete with ourselves and is there a programme paper on how we achieved this during the first phase of 2019-2022? Instead FAM are moving towards the second phase.

In 2022 as reported in NST Datuk Haji Hamidin, President of FAM said In a separate development, the overall achievement of the first cycle of F:30 as of the second quarter of this year was a recorded 64 per cent and is expected to reach 68 per cent to 75 per cent by the end of the year.

He said the progress was due to improvement in all three main thrusts – governance with an achievement of 64 per cent, development (62 per cent) and competition, 66 per cent.

F:30, which also acts as a benchmark, was launched by FAM in October 2018 with the aim of becoming the five best footballing countries in Asia by 2030.

How did we achieve this during Covid? Development was 62 percent? This involves grassroots football and we were stunted during this period, is there another definition of development besides grassroots football? To be fair there is a PDF copy on FAM site, but the goals of the first phase need to be re-looked and this is not a blaming game, every organisation even Fortune 500 companies can make mistakes and YB Datuk Haji Hamidin is trying his best as others in FAM who to be fair have taken Malaysia to another level, however let us not go overboard.

The Signal And The Noise

Looking at rankings as KPI is misleading and we have now dropped further in the rankings after the Asian Cup, while Thailand and Indonesia played warm-up games with tough opponents with Indonesia playing Argentina, Malaysia played the likes of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to prepare for the Asian Cup to gain traction in the rankings. Indonesia and Thailand advanced to the round of 16 while Malaysia finished rock bottom in the group stage. We climbed up before the Asian Cup and after the Asian Cup we went down like in snake and ladders.

In Nate Silver’s book, The signal and the Noise, he talks about how estimations, stats, predictions and forecasts can be completely misinterpreted, in other words data being misrepresented. The book’s title is how we should see the signal for what it is and not be influenced so-much by noisy data, that basically can be misleading. Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data, Silver states :

Most predictions fail, often at great cost to society, because most of us have a poor understanding of probability and uncertainty. Both experts and laypeople mistake more confident predictions for more accurate ones. But overconfidence is often the reason for failure. If our appreciation of uncertainty improves, our predictions can get better too.

Though in the case of FAM it is not so complex, but the principle is the same, are we focusing too much on KPI of competitions and qualification at the international level and not looking at performance and what the data is actually showing? This after the number of countries for the Asian Cup was increased from 16 to 24. The F-30 paper seems strategic, but it should be more tactical, for instance in the national grassroots competition (Suparimau) for under-12 on each team on the field is nine players per team, this might be too much for the boys or girls as at this age the children’s brain are still being formulated and movement, stamina, spacial ability at various age groups are different.

Skills

The whole point at this age group should be expression of skills more touches on the ball and encouragement of dribbling and holding on to the ball and being creative, in other words focus on technique. This however is difficult with 18 players on the field and with only a handful of minutes for the players to play, so what exposure are the kids getting?

The late Mokhtar Dahari is still the undisputed all time great of Malaysian football and was one of the best in Asia – Wikipediapic

Add to the fact that I have seen coaches scolding the players, this adds to the players being under pressure to just get rid of the ball and the enjoyment of it is gone. When is the last time you saw a Malaysian player and got excited? Have you seen a player who can run in a mazy dribble and get the fans excited? If so why do we bring in foreign players and are they good enough? The last time I got excited with a player in Malaysia is Mokthar Dahari or the Malaysian national team in the 1980s or the Selangor team in that era.

These kids in grassroots football – they represent the future, so yes we did qualify for the competitions at Asian levels, but as stated earlier are we doing the right things or doing things right? I remember when I was studying for my diploma in marketing there was a case study in the 1980s about how a CEO of company selling black and white TVs was making lots of profits in Europe and beating the competition and ultimately becoming the leader in Europe for Television sets, he was sacked. Why? The other organisations were already getting ready with colour Television and had phased out most of the black and white TV sets, so this CEO was myopic in his thinking looking at the wrong things, it brings back to what Nate Silver said. – NMH

Coming up in Part 2 : Why was the quality of Malaysian football better before the professional era and how we can move forward

The post Malaysian Football – What Now? – Part 1 first appeared on NMH.

Pickleball a sport that seem to come out of nowhere and has taken Malaysia and other countries by storm. Stefanie Graf, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova and John McEnroe have got into the act too. The tennis stars were spotted at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino last February trading in their racquets for paddles, Graf and Agassi swept past John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova to emerge victorious at the pickleball Slam 2 in Hollywood, Fla. Pickleball was invented by a former congressman from Washington by the name of Joel Pritchard in 1965.

But why the craze? Tennis courts in Malaysia are like white elephants, some are being used by avid tennis coaches and their students who want to be the next Nadal or Djokovic, but with an aging population in Malaysia, tennis is a game that can take a toll on you. The stop start manner and the heaviness that comes with the impact of hitting the racquet with a tennis ball can be a strain on the elbow and wrists and can cause injury for those weekend warriors and it can be heavy on the heart. Pickleball is opposite of all that is in tennis.

Pickleball Is Not Paddle Ball

Pickleball is not to be mixed up with paddle ball, which requires a square court with walls around with squash-like game mechanics. Paddle ball is a cross between tennis and squash and the former uses a ball that is almost like a tennis ball, but not the same.

Pickle ball just requires a normal court that can be a makeshift with portable nets or use a tennis court and does not require a wall around it. The game is much like tennis, and unlike paddle ball where the wall is used for the ball to bounce back and continue play, pickleball is easier. The part where pickle ball differs is the ball, it is plastic like with a couple of holes in it, the racquet is a cross between a ping pong bat and a tennis racquet and is not as big as a tennis racquet and not as small as a ping pong bat.

The ball is plastic and the holes give it a sort of aerodynamic balance when it hits the floor. What is annoying about the game is the sound when the racquet hits the ball or floor. For me it took some getting used to when testing it … it has that sound that goes ….tak … tak … tak …!

Compared to a tennis game or paddle ball where the sound is much softer and I might say, more tolerable, but it does not mean you do not have get into the sport, beyond this, it is fun.

From Badminton Courts To Pickleball Courts

In Malaysia, even indoor badminton courts have been converted to pickleball courts. A few months ago I visited Bangsar Sports Complex and was shocked to see in the Dewan (Hall) all the badminton courts were used as pickleball courts, but unlike tennis, it does not mean badminton is dying off.

Badminton is alive and well and I dare say in better health in Malaysia compared to tennis. Pickleball however is like a wild forest fire that keeps raging on and nobody is going to stop it, it can be played by young and old, but so far in what I have seen, the age group is mid-30s onwards in Malaysia.

Malaysia became a full member of the Interrnational Pickleball Federation (IPF) on 26 January 2024 and at the moment there are 77 member countries and 91 organisations. The IPF is based in USA, in the state of Maryland. There is one other international organisation that I saw on the internet but the one that is popular and gaining traction is the IPF.

Taekwondo had this problem of so-called disagreements and we have various factions or Taekwondo organisations world wide today, we only hope that Pickleball does not go into this direction.

The game though … Let us not take anything away, whether you belong to an organisation or not, it is fun and everyone should give it a try. One of the best parts about this sport, just like tennis or badminton, is that it is non-contact and as mentioned earlier easy on the hands. Even kids could double up with parents and play, and what better way to spend quality time with your children and also do a physical activity with them and encourage them.

The rules like tennis dictate that the ball can only bounce once before the opponent returns it to the opponent, but if kids are involved, you can make your own rules and give two or maybe even three bounces before volleying back the ball to the opponent (See video below).

In this case, the annoying noise keeps everyone on their toes, especially the kids! So no attention span problems here, you got to be always thinking on your feet and it is kind of like a moving dynamic meditation.

At this moment the Malaysia Pickleball Federation runs a facebook page with about two thousand plus followers, various other facebook pages and clubs have also popped up too.

For Asian Games

Already some competitions have been organised or played by some Malaysians, at this moment the IPF is working on the sport gaining acceptance for the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan in 2026. Malaysia is very popular in badminton and squash and pickleball looks like a winner and we might produce the next world champion and with the sport taking hold at the grassroots level, this can go a long way.

For a sport to flourish it has to have easy accessibility, mass participation and ease of mixed age groups (eh,,football? That is another story). Pickleball ticks all the boxes and the next step is for schools to look into this and perhaps even the Ministry of Education starting a competition for schools.

Nicol David and Sivasangari are famous for squash, and Nicol played squash when it was not so popular and now Sivasangari has brought Malaysia into the spotlight by winning the London Squash Classic by defeating the world number 1 in the process.

Let us get a grip on this sport and not be left behind before it is too late, we should even look at a state-of-the-art elite racquet sports centre, let us not waste money on sports which is not delivering time and time again, look further, innovate and think ahead. – NMH

Other articles by the writer:

Let The Commonwealth Games Begin, But At What Cost?

Commonwealth Games: Malaysians Unite After Decision Not To Host

The post PICKLEBALL, SPORT’S NEW RAGING FOREST FIRE first appeared on NMH.

The comments on facebook in one of the online facebook page of a news portal said it all regarding Malaysia’s decision not to host the Commonwealth Games.

Kenneth Ho: “Excellent decision”, Lai Chin Wah said: “Good decision”. Ahmad Wiraputra Selamat went on to say Alhamdulillah. I know its not easy to choose between budget constraints and glories we might get, but that’s the best we can do right now. Focus on people infrastructure. We will host when we are back stronger, Insya Allah”.

Ng Ming Lee also said, “Perhaps it’s a great choice at this moment”, Mazlan Mohamed even said, “Yehh”. It was hard to find anyone disagreeing, in fact when I saw it I did not find anyone who was against the decision not to host. However certain quarters like the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) were not happy with the decision, as they have contributed gold and silver medals in the Commonwealth competition before.

Disappointed

MWF president Datuk Ayub Rahmat is disappointed with the government’s decision to reject the offer to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games. The Malaysian government felt that the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) offer of £100 million (RM603 million) was insufficient to cover the costs of hosting the event.

The economic impact of hosting the event also cannot be realised in the nearest time. The cost was just too much and with the 1998 Commonwealth Games Village in Bukit Jalil sold off as apartments, where are we going to house the athletes for such a mamooth event? This is a different ball game compared to the SEA Games which Malaysia hosted in 2017 and are scheduled to host in 2027 with only 10 countries the logistics and housing of athletes can be scattered around and let us be honest, the SEA games can get away with not having ‘A’ class facilities compared to Commonwealth or Asian Games.

So what now for Malaysia? Perhaps the sports ministry should now look at developing grassroots sports, because the question arises, how much was the Malaysian government willing to spend or is deemed affordable if Malaysia were to host it? Could some of the money now be pooled into some sports federations or associations?

After all FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) were given RM5 million ringgit for finishing last in the Asian Cup group rounds when they lost two and drew one and went down the ranking. Granted the games budget would mean various ministries and the federal government would have to cough up for the budget of the games, but still this question should be asked. Perhaps MWF should ask this question since they are not happy with the decision of not hosting the games.

So who would be willing to host the games? Canada are Co-Hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and they would not want to host it for sure, Australia have already pulled out, I can see only the United Kingdom taking it back like egg on their face, with Birmingham hosting it 2022 and Glasgow in 2014 and Manchester in 2002, this could be an overkill.

From British Empire Games To Commonwealth Games

It says a lot about the games, is it running out of fashion? After all the games were originally known as the British Empire Games and a rebranding was done to call it the Commonwealth Games.

Could India be handed the games? India hosted the games in 2010, they hosted the Asian games on two occasions, but the 2010 Commonwealth Games cost India $7.5 billion, so they could easily say no thanks if awarded.

The next could be South Africa, but with their economy not in a healthy situation and the after effects of the FIFA World Cup 2010 plaguing them cost-wise, they would definitely not even be offered. Could this be the beginning of the end for the games?

Perhaps a sport could revive the games, football, which is not in the Commonwelath Games could be added in to bring in more sponsors and finance, this would go against the FIFA calendar, but perhaps the old Olympics football competition rules of not allowing players who played in the World Cup play in the Olympics be allowed for the Commonwealth Games.

With many of the countries not from Europe, football could be added into the calendar and the teams could be picked from FIFA rankings, perhaps just 16 teams and the host included. This, however, only adds to the logistics problem, but football could bring in more bang for the buck, it does not answer all the questions, but for now Malaysia breathes a sigh of relief, the Russian roulette of who is going to host will continue … let the games begin … again! – NMH

The post Commonwealth Games: Malaysians Unite After Decision Not To Host first appeared on NMH.

The hosting of the Commonwealth Games 2026 is up for grabs. Australia, or rather the state of Victoria, has pulled out of it, Malaysia was offered to be the host and that has caused a melee of debates between government and former officials and not forgetting netizens (Malaysians) on social media. What is wrong with this picture?

First, why did Victoria accept it and after that, outrightly pull out of it? Daniel Andrews, the state Premier of Victoria in Australia said the cost estimation has blown out and he was not prepared to redirect money from other parts of the government to make up for the shortfall. According to him, the initial budget for the games was $2.6 billion (RM12.23 billion) but now the figure is anywhere between $6 (RM28.21) billion and 7 (RM32.92) billion. Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips has said that he sees the stated cost overrun as a “gross exaggeration”.
However, Craig Philips is not supported by budgetary views of other states like New South Wales whose capital Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympic games. The state has also said that they would not step in citing budgetary pressures.

Sporting Culture

This is Australia, and the state of Victoria, with all their sporting culture and trappings of a modern city. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria was the host to the 1956 Summer Olympics and they have declined, with their state-of-the-art sporting facilities and all, they have declined!

Malaysia is considering it! So with the ringgit falling, prices of goods increasing like the heights of marquee skyscrapers in Malaysia, low salaries, crumbling sporting venues, etc, well Malaysians do not need to be an economist to know how good or bad the economy is. We are not in a very good place now and that is putting it mildly. We have graduates going down south to Singapore to work as garbage collectors, unemployment is still a plague and with an aging population and jigsaw puzzle management of the EPF pension fund by the government, can we manage to fund the games? Should we even consider it? Even ex-sporting greats are against this event, from Olympian Karu Selvaratnam to ex-national footballer Santokh Singh.

Commonwealth Games Federation

The Commonwealth Games Federation has offered 100 million pounds (RM600 million) to Malaysia to take up the games, this is a mineral water drop into the ocean of funding needed and the budget requirements from the state of Victoria gives a view of how much we need to get the games going. Even if we take a half of the estimation of the Victoria budget, which I highly doubt it will be, it is still a massive sum, we are still looking at a whopping $4 to 5 billion. This does not include the cost of what will happen after the games is over, like maintenance cost of facilities built if any and other debts incurred.

If Malaysia is banking on tourism, this is so overrated and it is a one-off and we should not bank on this. Granted that tourism success has been seen with marquee events like the World Cup, the Commonwealth Games is a different ball game. These are games that essentially is a celebration of British colonialism and countries that are not exactly top tier in economic status except countries like United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. So the tourism input is going to be unpredictable and adding the previous countries mentioned, they already are part of the tourist arrivals in Malaysia one way or another.

So is tourism a guarantee? A good example would be New South Wales (NSW) again, in this case in the gargantuan event like the Olympics in 2000. In 1997 NSW government made a claim that in-bound tourism and outbound tourism would reach a peak of 340, 000 in 2001 before gradually returning over several years to non-Olympics trend.

Marquee Event

However, a study in 2007 by the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University found that from 1997 to 2005, only in the financial year 2000-01 did foreign demand for tourism in NSW grew faster than in the rest of Australia, this with the marquee event of the Olympics. Maybe this is the reason the NSW government have decided to stay away now from the Commonwealth games instead of stepping in.

There is not enough time to upgrade venues, find sponsors and even set-up infrastructure, any host would at least need four years to be ready, these were some of the concerns stated by former Youth & Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. In Malaysia the spilt between former government officials and current office bearers on this topic is interesting, Norza Zakaria, President of the Commonwealth Games Association of Malaysia, called it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She even stated that it would put Malaysia back onto the world sporting map. Were we even in one?

Which map is this? Shouldn’t we have done this from the 1998 games? The money estimated to be spent leaves many I am sure salivating especially those in development and the coaching fraternity, think what we could do with even a quarter of this budget if this is spent on grassroots development of sports?

The Bukit Jalil stadium was in a mess for years with the pitch in terrible condition, so terrible it was unfit for play. Everybody raved and ranted in anger and for months, the stadium “went on tour in various news portals” for all the wrong reasons with pix of the pitch being shown. Finally in late 2023, Tunku Mahkota of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim made a contribution to repair the pitch, the sum was not disclosed. So this is how far we have come from 1998 Commonwealth Games, so do we still want to consider it? Do we need a hand-out from the Prince of Malaysia and not something that came out of the budget of the Youth & Sports Ministry, or the government, and now we are considering to spend billions to host the Commonwealth Games? This is the stadium that was used for the 1998 Commonwealth Games, this is our world sporting map?

Shah Alam Stadium

Let us not forget the Shah Alam stadium, the go-to stadium for the people of Selangor or at least that is what we thought. It was not maintained for years, it was literally falling apart and now finally the Selangor government has decided to tear it down and redevelop it, but this will be done in 2025. This clearly shows either it is not a priority or we don’t have the money for it. Or both. Are we a sporting nation?

This however goes beyond whether we are a sporting nation or not, it is about the cost of holding an event and spending billions, we are at this stage, economy wise are not ready for it, if the government makes a decision this coming week and say yes to it, where is the money coming from?

We should be focusing on one off events like concerts which bring a bang for the buck. The entertainment industry pre-Covid brought in 6.8 percent of Malaysia’s GDP. If one day concerts or two days of concerts can bring in this much, we should try our best for this. It is way less cost wise on spending big amounts for facilities for sporting events.

However, on the motor sports scene, we do have great facilities that can be utilised further. The Sepang Motor sports circuit is ready always and is being utilised, despite this, the organizers have yet to receive a response from the Prime Minister. Thailand might be ready to snap this up, this would be an easier decision to make.

Formula E-Prix Grand Finale

Sports Tech Holdings CEO Wan Agyl Wan Hassan, said plans to host next year’s Formula E-Prix Grand Finale in Kuala Lumpur were “indeed at an advanced stage”, after conditional rights were secured from Formula E earlier this year, but a response from the Malaysian government is yet to come. We even missed out on Taylor Swift concert after so-called contracts or agreements bungled, or rather handover issues from previous government to the present. Singapore’s economy got a RM 1.7 ($361 million) billion boost to the economy.

This is not just about decisions on sports and entertainment, this is about the health of the government in making viable decisions and boosting the confidence of the nation. If we do take the decision on Commonwealth Games, from where is the money going to come from? Why the delay on making a decision on Formula E when that should be so easy to decide? Is it because if they decide to go for Commonwealth Games, the decision for other sports and entertainment will go out of the window?

The nation awaits, but whatever the decision, we should be scared if the government is even thinking to spend billions on a sporting event that nobody wants at this moment. – NMH

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