KUALA LUMPUR: Hockey legend Datuk Poon Fook Loke feels that the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) should get a local, instead of foreigner, to coach the national men's team.
MHC has shortlisted the candidates to four men — two locals (K. Dharmaraj and Sarjit Singh) and two foreigners (Australian Glenn Turner and South African Brendon Caralon), and will announce the new national head coach by Feb 29.
A total of 23 coaches, including 18 foreigners, had applied for the post.
Fook Loke said he prefers to have a local as the head coach.
He pointed out that Dharmaraj and Sarjit have experience from coaching the national team before, and they have achieved something compared to Turner and Caralon who were assistants to former national coach A. Arul Selvaraj.
"I believe local coaches can deliver better than foreigners in coaching the national team.
"Most top European teams have their own local coaches handling all levels of coaching in their countries.
"However, the local coaches need to educate and update themselves in coaching aspects. They need to attend higher level coaching courses conducted by FIH, the world governing body.
"To be a calibre coach you need to keep learning new ideas that can help improve the players' performance.
"Look at the European coaches, they travel a lot to attend courses and also watch matches during tournaments to gain valuable points.
"When you learn new ideas then you can implement them into your team," said Fook Loke, a member of the Malaysian team that finished fourth in the 1975 World Cup.
"If I do the interview, what is important are the coach's plans and how he is going to carry them out to help Malaysia win gold in the 2026 Asian Games."
He said the main target of the new head coach is to help Malaysia win the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya
Asian Games gold and qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Malaysia have not qualified for the Olympics for the last 24 years.
Two-time Olympian Fook Loke said: "It's a tough task for the coach but he must do it, otherwise he goes.
"That's why the MHC is offering a two-year contract with an additional two years. If he helps the team qualify for Olympics, then he gets two more years."