Maybank (yellow) in action in the Malaysian Hockey League
Reminiscing to the '80s till the early '90s, when you are a state or a national hockey player, the bank's representatives will be at your doorsteps offering you employment.
At that time the Interbank hockey competition was considered a glamorous hockey tournament and most banks were competing with one another to get the best players to represent them.
In the early '80s, United Asian Bank (UAB) employed many national hockey players, and from the mid-'80s, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) move aggressively to employ young budding national hockey players to beef up their team.
Maybank wants to be seen and heard as the "Number 1" team in the field of hockey; this is to maintain their status quo as the "Number 1" in the field of finance.
I can still vividly recall, most banks that participated in the interbank hockey competition during that time were Public Bank Berhad (PBB), Malayan Banking Berhad(MBB), United Asian Bank(UAB), Perwira Habib Bank(PHB), Bank Bumiputra Berhad(BBB), United Malayan Banking Corporation(UMBC) and Kwong Yik Bank(KYB).
Nearly all national hockey players were touted by these banks.
When the National Hockey League(NHL) was introduced in 1987s, most of the banks participated, as this competition was part of their preparation for the interbank hockey competition.
After the financial crisis hit Malaysia in 1997s, banks went through a period of restructuring, merger and acquisition exercises to fortify the financial sector.
Upon completion of these exercises, the number of banks participating in the interbank hockey competition and the NHL reduced drastically.
Then with the banking industry going through with another round of internal and external restructuring in the early and mid-2000s', the few banks that were participating in the NHL fizzle away.
Maybank being the bastion of the financial sector continued their participation in the NHL consistently.
Powered with many young and vibrant national hockey players, Maybank
showed its prowess on the field by winning the league title in 1994 & 1995 and the overall title in 1990 & 1994.
Since then Maybank continued participating in NHL without any success.
Even with the NHL changing its name to the Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) didn't transform Maybank's fortune in the competition.
These mediocre results had prompted Maybank's top brass to give their hockey team management carte blanche to hire the best hockey players in the country and also to secure renowned foreign players for the MHL.
With this strong support, Maybank's team management tried to recruit established junior and senior national hockey players by offering them employment opportunities with the bank, but only a handful took the offer as most players were enticed with the big bucks the other teams were offering.
For the foreign player's quota, Maybank was able to secure the service of the legendary midfielder Shakeel Abbasi, the speedy Muhammad Waqas and other notable Pakistani internationals for a few seasons to lead the Maybank team in the MHL.
All these actions too didn't work out to Maybank's favor in the MHL.
Some murmurs of Maybank will not be participating in the coming MHL are coming out from the hockey circle and I hope it's not true.
I too was a Maybank hockey player and every time I see Maybank in action in the MHL reminds me of the great and beautiful years enjoying hockey with the Maybank team.
As the bastion of our financial sector, Maybank can create the best hockey players for their team and country with a Long Term Development Plan(LTDP) for hockey in place.
This LTDP can be part of Maybank's Corporate Social Responsibility program.
I hope to see the tiger roaring again in this coming Malaysian Hockey league with a vision and mission to lift Malaysian hockey to greater heights.
("Tiger" -synonymous with Maybank's logo)
Thank You.
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