MALAYSIAN and Asian hockey are in their death throes, and only a super outing in Invercargill, New Zealand and Lille, France is the cure.
Pitted against world ranked eighth New Zealand, China (13th), Austria (20th), Scotland (24th) and Wales (29th), 16th ranked Malaysia need to emerge victorious in the Qualifier, which starts on Saturday, to play in the 2010 New Delhi World Cup.
And the fact that Malaysia have never won a single gold medal other than the Sea Games, since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics days when the likes of Tan Sri P. Alagendra played, is a telling sign of what will happen in the land of the Kiwis.
Alagendra went on to become the deputy president of the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) and is still the secretary general of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF).
And his president in the MHF, at one time, and currently the AHF president, is Sultan Azlan Shah.
To put it mildly, the MHF and the AHF are to be blamed for the current state of hockey in Malaysia and Asia.
The fact that the International Hockey Federation (FIH) seems more favourable to European teams is still not grasped properly by the AHF.
A reference point is the New Delhi World Cup where India as hosts, and South Korea as Asia Cup champions, are the only two confirmed Asian teams.
Pakistan, Malaysia, China and Japan will go through qualifiers and other than Pakistan, the other three Asian teams only have an outside chance of playing in New Delhi.
Looking at Europe, the FIH allotted four spots from the EuroHockey tournament, in short the semi-finalists, as direct entries into the World Cup, while nine of the "losers" ended up in the Qualifier pool.
Compare that to the one slot from the Asia Cup for direct entry, and only four teams for the Qualifiers from this region.
The imbalance is telling, but the FIH justifies the selection quota based on world ranking, which is dominated by the European teams currently.
Asia allowed hockey to be stolen from its grasp when it agreed to artificial pitches, but it is way too late to cry over that issue.
To take European hockey to a higher level, teams now freely cross borders to play in an active league, and lesser known sides like Poland have benefited by becoming the Champions Challenge II gold medallists.
AHF must wake up and have another tournament for its six best affiliates to play competitive hockey, but it is unlikely to happen as many such proposals in the past have remained just that until today.
The fact that Pakistan -- a record four-time world champions -- have never missed a World Cup since its inception in 1971 but are facing a do-or-die situation in Lille, France is cause for Asia to worry.
Pakistan lost 1-0 to South Korea in the Asia Cup in Kuantan and are now travelling the tougher route to Delhi, but the World No 7 have stamped their mark by beating Italy 5-0, and then Russia 5-0 in the France Qualifier.
Japan also have two wins (Poland 3-2 and Russia 4-0) in the Qualifier, but sadly, if both of them march into the final, only one Asian team will play in New Delhi.
Malaysia are now in Invercargill, and playing in the final is a distant dream, which is the result of decades of poor planning.
Wake up MHF and AHF, and come up with a concrete plan to uplift the standard of not only Malaysia, but Asia as well.
If not, the rankings will slide further after New Delhi and then there will be no longer any Asian team playing in the Champions Trophy, and the FIH will have more reasons to give more berths in world class tournaments to Europe.