AFTER the four-day Sikh Festival of Sports (SFOS), also known as Gurdwara Cup, ended on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur, the question is what are the players going to do for the rest of the 361 days?
Does the Malaysia Singapore Sikh Sports Council (MSSSC) have other events in states to help Sikh athletes stay active and improve their standards? Is there any grassroot development programme to unearth new talent?
MSSSC needs to find ways to encourage youngsters to take up sports, and not let the SFOS exist just as a social event, and be remembered for the wrong reasons.
Datuk Daljeet Singh Dhillion, a former adviser to the MSSSC, bluntly said there is no grassroot development programme in MSSSC.
"How are we going to develop and produce players if MSSSC doesn't have a development programme?
"Each MSSSC official is in charge of development programmes for hockey, football, badminton, netball and golf, but what they have been doing all this while?"
He said MSSSC should organise development programmes and competitions every few months like having zones: the north zone (Kedah, Penang and Perak), central zone (Selangor and KL) and south zone (Negri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor and Pahang).
"It's sad that the officials in charge have no knowledge of sports at all. How are they going to develop sports?
"They only know how to organise the Sikh Festival of Sports once a year for four days, and they go back to sleep until the next Games.
"The MSSSC's constitution needs to be changed as only life members can vote to elect office bearers. It should be the states who nominate and vote for the office bearers, not life members," said Daljeet, who served as MSSSC secretary from 1991-1996 and was its deputy president from 1997-2000.
Daljeet pointed out that though the Royal Malaysian Police are affiliated to MSSSC, they cannot form teams for the SFOS.
"Police have requested that their serving staff and children be allowed to play for other states but MSSSC refused. Why stop them? After all, some states don't compete in team sports due to lack of players."
Former FIH technical official Jusvir Singh said MSSSC should have development camps every two months in the northern and southern regions for youngsters. And get ex-internationals to teach them basic skills and motivate them."
The SFOS opening men's hockey match between KL and Johor at Tun Razak Stadium on May 27 was marred by pushing and shoving incidents due to poor umpiring.
Jusvir, who was the Malaysia Hockey League Tournament Director from 2015-2019, said events like the SFOS should have quality umpires.
Many Sikh players used to represent Malaysia since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics like the late Gian Singh, Tara Singh, Balbir Singh, Avtar Singh Gill, Avtar Singh Grewal, Mohindar Singh, Jagjit Singh, Sarjit Singh, Kelvinder Singh and Baljit Singh.
The last Sikh hockey player to represent Malaysia was Pawandeep Singh who featured in the 2021 Junior World Cup in Bhubaneswar, India.
It is time for MSSSC to bring in professionals who can help develop Sikh athletes. Enough of avaricious officials who changed the MSSSC constitution just for their own personal agendas like eyeing datukship.
State affiliates must act to put an end to the same old SFOS sad story of players fighting and obscenities flying.
