There wont be a world cup for them

Naga,

I hope you dont mind me putting this email up in hooha.asia

I feel that it is appropriate to reflect that while the world celebrate football's holy grail, some of us are left  in misery.

If only the boys below were given a "fair go"

The OrangeMan

Maans Chando...

They (Ozs) play as if they have a chip on their shoulders....they play rough and robust to compensate for their sheer lack of skills and agility...hence I do not participate with them since it`s not worth the possible injuries... I do play once in awhile with an Asian team which has sprinkles of Ozs who are more sane and humble....

Remember how the Malaysia of our days used to give these Ozs a thumping at Merdeka tournament...look at where they are and where we are....sad indeed da...

Man, in my view if only Malaysia had carried on at that pace and “merdeka spirit” in soccer, we too could be in the WC today don’t you think so??

I grew up in Loke Yew as you all know....and I have experienced the pure talents in soccer that was there among some of the Indian boys who were from poor families....2 guys that stood out and could have been even better than any Malaysian (even Mokhtar!) were Segar and Marimuthu.....

Segar used to draw a  crowd of adults every time he turned up to play...even though he was hardly 11 or 12 years old....he was immensely talented, raw and exciting...he could thump a 20 m first timer after chesting the ball from corner kicks even at that age...malay, chinese and Indian men from around the neighbourhood would turn up just to see the dazzling skills of “Sey-ga”...he could easily beat 3-4 players on the run at full speed and take shots with both feet from anywhere within the penalty box. Sey-ga or “Bomba Segar” as he was used to be called since his father was a fireman with the Jln Shaw Fire Brigade, never excelled in studies for obvious reasons....he eventually went to San Peng school and played for some Div 2 FAS clubs with no real mentoring or grooming of his precocious talents...eventually he failed his SRP and started working as a labourer at DBKL and today Segar is labourer at the Shah Alam Stadium. I am sure he often sadly reflects as to “what could have been if only...”

Marimuthu ( who strangely also had a family pet name, Segar!), was 3 years older to me.He was my immediate neighbour at the flats and he had a mother who was mentally insane and a father who was an alcoholic. He was the youngest in the his large family and had 5 older brothers and 2 sisters and used to resemble Michael Jackson. 3 of his brothers used to be involved in gangs and one was a clear suspect at a murder of a chinese man (this man was chopped to pieces)...whereas the other one was an acute drug addict.

Despite hailing from such a family, he was a tremendous runner from a very young age and focused very much on soccer. He too started playing with a very famed club VOC, who were is FAS Div 1 back in the 70s, at a very young age of hardly 16 if I am not mistaken. Such was his talent, that M Chandran, who was coaching Selangor at that point of time, became interested in him. By the time he was 18 or 19 he was called into the Selangor squad to train with them and impressed Chandran greatly ( bear in mind that Selangor at that point of time was primarily the great Malaysian team)...however he did not persist because of the lure of drugs and alcohol from his neighbourhood and eventually started with occasional indulgence with drugs...that slowly but surely led him in a downward spiral...though eventually married, all fell apart progressively.

I bumped into Marimuthu back in the late 90s ,who was then scavenging the dumpsite of the Tawakal hospital, when I went over to visit my mother who was admitted there at that time. There was this scraggy man, haggard and beaten by life stumbling across to me and crying out my name since he recognised me whereas I could not make out who he was....it was so sad and finally I had to part ways with him and gave him RM20 since he was really in need. News reached us some months later that he was found dead at a dumpsite from drug overdose...what a sad ending and I will always remember him for his Michael Jackson looks and brilliance of being able to control the ball with his head while running at speed across a full length of a field....

Guys, I don’t know why I am led to share about these great players, whom I have been privileged to have grown up with.....perhaps this is what the spirit of World Cup does to us....to celebrate the beauty and brilliance of players all over....though many have passed through life never really having had the privilege to shine as they ought to be.......