KUALA LUMPUR: To the consternation of 17 participating teams, the Negri Sembilan Hockey League, scheduled to start this Saturday, has been suddenly postponed.
That, despite all the groupings and fixtures having been finalised.
On Tuesday, Negri Sembilan HA (NSHA) secretary P. Tamil Selvan, with an apology, informed the teams that the league has been postponed to a later date (to be announced later).
However, former national player, Suhaimi Ibrahim, who had registered to play for Gemencheh along with his son, Sahmie Irfan, who is a Junior World Cupper, is irked over the postponement.
"The NSHA secretary called me on Tuesday and said they were postponing the league. I was shocked and I asked why.
"No valid reason was given in the letter. How can they postpone the league at the 11th hour? There must be a reason behind it," said Suhaimi.
"There has been no Negri state league since 2019, and now they suddenly shocked the teams by postponing the league without any valid reason.
"I have been playing in the state league for many years and this is the first time that this has happened.
"We spent a lot of money preparing for the league, paying for players' training, attire which is about RM5,000 for two teams, booking of hockey pitches which cost about RM7,000, registration fees for each team is RM300 and other things.
"It's really demoralising for the teams as they had prepared hard for the league and it got postponed just five days before it was about to start.
"This is unfair. We want the registration fees to be returned to all the 17 teams.
"How are we going to develop hockey in the state when they can't run the league?
"The postponement is not a good impression and teams will think twice before they compete in the league next year," said Suhaimi who represented Malaysia from 1997-2002.
Tamil, when contacted by Timesport on the issue, said the NSHA Standing Committee, which met on Nov 4, decided to postpone the league to a later date.