Dharma Raj leaves women’s squad
KUALA LUMPUR: Experienced hockey coach, Muhammad Dharma Raj Abdullah, today announced his decision not to continue coaching the national women’s hockey squad.
Muhammad Dharma, who is among the national hockey coaches whose contracts with the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) ended on Dec 31, decided not to reapply for the post.
The 50-year old conceded that it was not easy to let go of the team which he had coached since 2016 especially after numerous successes were achieved together, but stressed that he had to rest for a while.
“I owe a sincere apology to the team that I can’t continue the journey that I embarked upon with them. (And) for the promise I made to them that I won’t leave until we get one big success.
“However in my situation, it’s tiring and challenging, so some rest will be good. After thinking this through and discussing with my family, I have decided to take a break and will not apply for the job as advertised by MHC,” he told press conference to announce the decision at Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium, here today.
Among his notable achievements with the team was winning the gold medal at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and runners-up in the Second Round of the Women’s Hockey World League (WHWL) and fifth at the Jakarta-Palembang 2018 Asia Games.
He also guided the women’s indoor hockey team to the gold medal in the recent SEA Games in the Philippines after coaching them for just one month.
The final date to fill the posts of national hockey coach as advertised by MHC is by midnight tonight.
In Dec, MHC announced that they would not be extending the contracts of all coaches under it except that of the national men’s squad coach Roelant Oltman.
The move was taken to revamp the sports training structure.
— BERNAMA
