Foul!

As published in Sunday Mail By Vijhay Vick vijhayvick@mmail.com.my PETALING JAYA — Sports officials, athletes and observers have lambasted Selangor for adopting the #KitaLawan motto for next year’s Malaysia Games (Sukma). The motto, revealed during a briefing with state sports associations at De Palma Hotel in Ampang on Friday, is the tagline used by jailed opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s supporters who are fighting for his release. The Sukma motto has the words Selangor peneraju kecemerlangan sukan (Selangor spearheading sports excellence) above an eagle’s head and #KitaLawan! below. The meeting was organised by the Selangor Sports Council and chaired by state executive councillor for sports, Amirudin Shari. Amirudin insisted the tagline was “not an issue”. Sukma is the national games participated by athletes aged 21 and below. The 2016 edition is in Sarawak. “It is a tagline associated with resistance. Sukma is a sporting event for the young. It is ...

As published in Mailsport today By Graig Nunis gnunis@mmail.com.my PETALING JAYA — Former National Sports Council (NSC) director general Datuk Wira Mazlan Ahmad, is ready to help rebuild Malaysian sports.     Mazlan, the architect behind the successful Jaya ’98 and Gemilang 2001 programmes, is among those proposed to join a task force to rejuvenate Malaysia’s fortunes following back-to-back failures at the Commonwealth and Asian Games.   Malaysia only won six gold medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in August, half of what they achieved at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010. The national contingent ended their Asian Games outing yesterday with five gold medals, three short of their target.    For the record, Malaysia won nine golds at the last Asiad in Guangzhou, China, four years ago.     “I will definitely help if my services are needed. I still have much passion for sports and feel sad we ...

Haresh Says, as published in Mailsport today.   IT was witty yet riddled with sarcasm — a back page that would have caused Newcastle manager Alan Pardew to choke on the bacon roll he had for breakfast.     England’s Sunday Sun ridiculed Pardew, in an ‘apologetic’ fashion, as the Magpies recorded a series of losses with the recent being a 1-0 defeat to Stoke on Saturday in the Premier League. This was after Pardew blamed the local press for the fans’ anger following the team’s poor outing.   It was a clever effort, more cheeky than anything else, but it got the message across loud and clear. In short it read: Dear Mr Pardew, Enough of blaming the Press. You are the reason why the fans are hopping mad. Now imagine a similar piece plastered on our back pages.   To be fair, most sports journos in Malaysian have the upper hand of being rather critical and ‘aggressive’, to a certain extent, compared to their counterparts i...

Having spent a day asking around and speaking to various folks - from writers, Youth and Sports Ministry insiders to observers, here are some of the names that could turn out to be the new Sports Commissioner (in no particular order) - as published on the backpage of The Malay Mail today. 1. Ab Jalil Abdullah, National Sports Council (NSC) sports management director    - it will be seen as a promotion for the S54 grade officer. Has the expertise but mainly on elite sports. Sports Commissioner's Office is also about mass sports. It would finally be the break he deserves as time (or rather age) is not on his side. 2. Madzrib Ibrahim, Registrar of Youth Societies    - an unknown among those outside the ministry but Madzrib was apparently "groomed for bigger things" only to be placed in cold storage as he does not click well with certain top officials. He once served as a deputy director general for the sports development division within the ministry and is curren...