WINNING the silver at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, which was held from Sept 11 to Sept 21, was special and I will cherish that moment forever.
As Malaysia was the host nation, expectations were high for us to deliver at the Commonwealth Games, which was previously known as the British Empire Games when it was inaugurated in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1930, even though we had a poor showing earlier that year.
Under coach Volker Knapp, we finished at 11th place at the World Cup in Utrecht, which was held in Holland from May 21 to June 1. As I was recovering from an ankle injury and was not a 100 per cent fit, I was unhappy with my performance in Utrecht.
With the fans and the Press following us every step of the way, all eyes were on us on as to whether we could bounce back after the World Cup and do well at the Games.
In order to prepare for the Games, which had 69 nations participating in 15 sporting events, a lot of money was spent by the Malaysian government to build the required stadiums and infrastructure.
We were all thankful and appreciative of their efforts to successfully host one of the biggest international sporting events in Malaysia.
In preparation for the Games, the National Sports Council (NSC) spent further on the teams so, the pressure was on.
As Malaysia was ranked seventh, we knew it was going to be difficult, but we needed to face all the obstacles and challenges before us in order to shine at the Games.
Group A comprised of Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Wales while Group B had Canada, England, Kenya, Pakistan and Malaysia.
Paul Lissek, who replaced Knapp as coach, only had two and half months to prepare the Malaysian team. Although time was not on his side, the German was adamant on fulfilling the task that was given to him.
In order to help Malaysia do well at the Games, Lissek, who handled Germany from 1990 to 2000, was given a two-month break by their hockey federation.
Lissek was strict in his approach at getting the players moving and improving ─ he changed the structure, concept and philosophy of the team and incorporated a high level of discipline when it came to defence.
Fitness was also emphasised: I remember Lissek would ask us to run up and down the staircase at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil after each training session.
When he made changes to the squad, Lissek overhauled the team by selecting youngsters, such as goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin, K. Logan Raj, Madzli Ikmar and Suhaimi Ibrahim.
During the South Korea playing tour ─ two weeks before the Commonwealth Games ─ Lissek made some positional changes with central midfielder, R.Shankar, playing as the last man and forward, Calvin Fernandez, playing in central midfield.
As the Commonwealth Games drew closer, these changes seemed to work out just fine.
Considering what we were up against, the tour did play a big role in helping us win the silver and it was quite an achievement that we pulled it off.
We played five to seven test matches against the Koreans, who went on to win the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Lissek had two capable assistants during this playing tour: Stephen van Huizen and Yahya Atan.
It must be said that Lissek analysed our gameplay by spending hours upon hours watching recordings of our matches against the Koreans.
There was no escape for us as he would watch the video and point out mistakes made by the team as well as the individual players.
Unlike in the past, players could not deny that they made any mistakes as it was all caught on video for everyone to see.
It also must be said that Lissek would start shouting in German if a mistake were to be repeated time and time again; one of his favourites was ‘sheisse’ or shit.
It was in South Korea that Lissek, who played in the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, sprang a surprise by naming me captain of the side, taking over from Nor Saiful Zaini Nasiruddin.
To this day, I still don't know the reasons why Lissek decided to do what he did; only he does. I was surprised with this decision as Saiful had been our captain all the while and as his replacement, I had to shoulder a much bigger responsibility.
Two days before the tournament started, then Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, visited the contingent camp at Uniten on behalf of Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
All I can say is that Anwar successfully fired up our spirit for the challenge ahead ─ we all had goosebumps.
The squad for the Commonwealth Games is as follows: Roslan Jamaluddin, Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim, S. Kuhan, K. Gobinathan, Maninderjit Singh, R. Shankar, Nur Azlan Bakar, Calvin Fernandez, Madzli Ikmar, K. Keevan Raj, Nor Saiful Zaini Nasiruddin, Chairil Anwar Abdul Aziz, M. Kaliswaran, K. Logan Raj, Suhaimi Ibrahim and myself. Datuk R. Yogeswaran was the manager.
As it was the first time that men's field hockey was being contested at the Commonwealth Games, with competition commencing on Sept 9 and ending on Sept 20, it would be great if Malaysia did well in front of their fans.
In the group matches, Malaysia beat Kenya 4-0, drew 1-1 with Pakistan, 2-2 with England and beat Canada 2-1 in the decider for a place in the semi-finals.
At this juncture, a controversy erupted whereby the Canadians, who needed a draw, claimed that the second goal should not have been allowed as a free hit and should have been given to them when the ball hit a Malaysian player.
Although the unhappy Canadians had damaged the changing room after the match, they apologised later and agreed to pay for the damages.
For the record, there was bad blood between Canada and Malaysia since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics qualifier in Barcelona where a controversy had also come into being when when Canada accused Malaysia of conspiring with India for a 0-0 draw.
This resulted in the Canadians being knocked out after ending up in sixth spot by a point; the thing was Malaysia did beat them 2-1 in an earlier match.
This bad blood between the two ended after the changing room incident, though.
The big match against India came next for Malaysia. A win would guarantee us at least a silver medal. It was going to be tough but we knew we could pose some trouble for our traditional rivals.
That fateful moment happened on a Saturday at 8.35pm on September 19. The atmosphere was simply fantastic as the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil was packed ─ with thousands more locked outside ─as tickets were sold out much earlier.
From what I understand, there were even black-market tickets being sold by those who wanted to make a fast buck.
Anyway, the organisers decided to open the gates after halftime to allow those locked out to watch the game; nothing like this has ever happened before as we received more vocal support to cheer us on.
In the clash between Malaysia and India, the score was 0-0 after 70 minutes. During extra time, the match had gone into ‘golden goal’ where the first to score won, failing which, there would be a penalty shootout if extra time did not result in a win.
We had ourselves a penalty corner when Dilip Tirkey brought me down in the 25-metre area. Subsequently, Saiful made a direct hit upon Dhanraj Pillay, which earned us another penalty corner.
It was in the ‘scrum’ (the meeting before the penalty corner execution) that I told Kuhan to relay the ball to me for a deflection upon realising that the Indian second runner was very low in his positioning.
The trick worked as I managed to deflect the ball into the goal for the winner; Malaysia was in the final.
The stadium erupted as I took off my jersey in jubilation and celebrated. I ran across the grandstand and to the other side of the stadium, followed by my teammates.
As it was also my 27th birthday, what a day it was to receive such a wonderful birthday present.
I would like to extend my appreciation to the 12th player in the team ─ our fans ─ who had been very supportive since Day One of competition.
In the first semi-final match held earlier at 6.35pm, Australia, under Malaysia’s former coach Terry Walsh, had defeated England with a score of 3-2 after ‘golden goal’ during extra time.
The following day, the Australians beat Malaysia 4-0 in the final match, which began at 8.35pm.
I am not saying we could have won the final, but we could have fought better if we were more well-rested after our encounter with India, especially in the first 70 minutes when we were under tremendous pressure.
We only arrived at the Games Village at about 1.00am as we had to attend to several things, such as the ensuing press conference and so forth, after the match against India.
All said and done, everyone played a part in our success that day. I may have scored the deciding goal against India but everyone in the team played their part to enable Malaysia to be on record as silver medallists of the Commonwealth Games; It was undeniably a team effort.
As for me, the 1998 Games was a pretty memorable one.
Besides the grand opening and closing ceremonies at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium and the silver medal, I had the opportunity to be seated at the same table as Queen Elizabeth II for high tea at the Games Village; the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, had paid us a visit for about an hour.
It was simply an experience of a lifetime.
We must thank the NSC, Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF), coaches and team manager for their contribution as well.
It was a short but memorable stint for Lissek, who returned to Germany soon after, with van Huizen taking over for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
With that, I would like to wish Happy New Year to all our readers. ─ The Vibes, 1 January, 2021
