A public interest group has come forward in the city of Ipoh (capital of the state of Perak in Malaysia) to act on a missed opportunity by the "field hockey community" to leverage on the available natural sports grounds and NOT to rely solely on the artificial playing surface that is less sustainable (limited access etc.)

I am part of the above mentioned public interest group that is trying to encourage greater participation and enjoyment in playing the game of hockey by initiating a development program called Grass-Roots Hockey Program (GRHP) in partnership with schools using the concept of "push hockey", which is less "dangerous" - as no "outright hitting" is allowed & played on a smaller pitch. The highlight of the porgram is a hockey carnival.

However, there are some major challenges:

The available  public fields are now being totally dominated by the sport of football and grounds like Ipoh Padang and Taman D R Seenivasagam that used to be venues for grass hockey matches besides football etc have now become  training grounds for mainly one particular privileged sport.

WHY IS IT THAT football, is granted access and additional facilities provided to use all available "match-designated" & "non-match designated" spaces on both Ipoh Padang & Taman D R.

IS THAT FAIR?

IT IS SAD! THAT FELLOW SPORTSMEN SEEM DETERMINED TO "PREVENT" GRASS HOCKEY ENTHUSIASTS FROM  FROM NURTURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF POTENTIAL TALENT USING A MORE SUSTAINABLE APPROACH.

LETS PROMOTE MORE SPORT & SPORT THAT IS MORE SUSTAINABLE!

ARE WE "BLIND"?

THE ABOVE WAS POSTED IN 2023 OUT OF FRUSTRATION AT THE UNCOOPERATIVENESS OF FOOTBALLERS AT TAMAN DR SEENIVASAGAM !

There are football fields scattered all over Ipoh and other parts of Malaysia. Walk into almost any school and one will find a football field complete with goalposts, and mind you the field continues to be lined with black used engine oil (the grass dies & a permanent depression is created). Now we even have futsal courts. BUT what about other sports that need to be promoted as well?

BELOW IS THE ADDED FRUSTRATION WITH FOOTBALLERS (AND THEIR HARMFUL STUDS) RECENTLY IN 2025 AFTER THE IPOH CITY COUNCIL ALLOWED A SINGLE REDUCED SIZE HOCKEY PITCH TO BE USED FOR OUR IPOH GHC CARNIVAL.

The MANAGER of one of the 17 teams that participated in the IPOH GHC 2025 at Ipoh Padang on 22nd Nov 2025 commended the organising team, and my response is pasted below:

[00:20, 23/11/2025] Christy P Gomez: Most welcome.
We can do better, but one major factor is the proper grass pitch to enjoy grass hockey.
I personally hv played at the best grass pitches in Msia, KILAT CLUB in KL, IPOH PADANG, MALACCA CLUB PADANG, SEREMBAN TOWN PADANG, etc.

Our problem is WE DON'T appreciate what we naturally hv.
I played hockey on grass pitches in UK, their's are no match to ours.
BUT we gave it all away & the footballers hv no respect for our wish to enjoy & encourage the 'green" hockey that has so much to offer.

Just take a look at what the footballers did after we finished & disrespected our pleas not to immediately "destroy" this pitch (see below) as they did when we held a similar competition at Taman DR Seenivasagam in 2023.

[00:25, 23/11/2025] Christy P Gomez: I appealed to the footballers to play in other areas besides our "push hockey" pitch, but they were disrespectful.
They prefer not to play on the empty football pitch (beside our pitch) but insists on playing on "our" pitch that was booked & just played on 🤷‍♂️