KUCHING: The lack of experience was the main reason why Sarawak failed to perform well in the men’s and women’s softball competitions at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang in Sukma XVI, Kuala Lumpur from June 29 to July 3.
The men’s team completed their campaign in Group B with one win and four defeats to end fifth in the group while the women’s team fared better by recording two wins and two defeats to finish third in Group A.
In the men’s competition, Sarawak men lost 3-12 to Terengganu, 5-6 to Perak, 0-4 to Kedah and 3-11 to Penang but beat Perlis 5-1 in their final group match.
On the other hand, the women’s team opened their campaign with 0-9 and 0-4 defeats to Terengganu and Pahang respectively but beat Kedah 8-4 and Negeri Sembilan 10-3 in the following matches.
Team manager Ishak Chin Abdullah, who is Sarawak Softball Association (SSA) president, said the women have improved with a top 5-6 ranking while the men’s team, which finished in the top 9-10 ranking, maintained their standard when compared to Sukma 2011 in Kuala Lumpur.
“It was unfortunate that both teams failed to achieve the top four ranking but the positive thing is that about 90 per cent of the women and 60 per cent of the men players are still eligible for Sukma 2015,” said Ishak.
He could not accept insufficient exposure as one of the main reasons why the state teams failed to perform well at Sukma XVI.
“Since 2011, many tournaments and activities were organised by SSA, MSSM, local clubs and Malaysian Softball Association, with the peak period between November 2012 and May 2013,” said Ishak.
Among the events were KRP Mixed Slow Pitch in November 2012, SSA Miri Mixed FP Carnival in December 2012, SSA U21 Sukma Selection Tournament in January 2013, MSS District U18, Karnival Voktek Sarawak and 39th National Open in April this year.
Prior to Sukma XVI, the tournaments and activities included MSS Sarawak U18, U15, TSC Fast Pitch League in May, MSS National U18, U15, Karnival Voktek National in June and two to three high level friendlies during the centralised training.
However, the SSA president believes that the state Sukma players should go for more exposure tournaments in Semenanjung Malaysia where they get to pit their skills against teams from other states.
By doing so, Sarawak will get to know its strengths and weaknesses as well as those of their opponents.
“It is also important that all members of the teams get to train and play together as a team in the exposure tournaments because team understanding and good teamwork are important factors for a team to do well,” said Ishak.
Apart from that, Ishak felt that the players must be mentally strong and able to cope with pressure when facing stronger teams.
He described the appointment of Manuel D Bacarisas as a full-time coach by SSA in November last year and in March by the Sarawak State Sports Council as a right move as the Filipino had helped greatly to improve batting, pitching and correction of various mechanical flaws of the players.
“On future improvement and development, we should continue to train the existing players still eligible for Sukma 2015. We should also start training the U18 and U16 players immediately,” he said.
“We can do more with more volunteers, necessary equipment and financial funding,” Ishak added.