Malaysian cricket - A conspiracy greater than the FAM debacle?

THE Sarawak Cricket Association has allegedly been given the opportunity to organise various international tournaments recently, with claims that many more competitions will be 'gifted' by the Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) as a close ally.

However, it was revealed that Sarawak Cricket had never held an annual general meeting for over ten years, and major decisions were made alone - without any committee meetings.

A member who declined to be named, claimed that for many years, no general meeting was held but it was found that reports had been made to the Sports Commissioner's Office.

While it seemed as if there had been a general meeting, none had ever taken place, but reports were still submitted. Reports also claimed that the matter was allegedly reported to the Sarawak Sports Commissioner, Azizi Johari but he refused to investigate.

Sarawak Cricket president Awang Mahyan Awang Mohamed was furious when he learnt of these incidents and vowed to call for a meeting soon.

An insider revealed that Mahyan was also surprised that he was not informed of the appointment of Haikal Harith Adam Prakash as CEO which was not made in any committee meeting.

Apparently, many other resolutions and decisions were also made without any committee meeting. The Secretary of Sarawak Cricket is Gordon Chung Pei Nan, who also holds a position in the Malaysia Cricket Association (MCA).

Gordon Chung part of coup d'etat?

Meanwhile, it was pointed out that Chung was was part of the coup d’etat with past president, Mahinda Vallipuram, Datuk Ahmad Feisal and Amy Mokhzani who formed a team to oust the previous Exco on operational matters.

Ahmad Feisal is the Vice President of MCA and also the Honorary Treasurer of the Olympic Council of Malaysia.

"Awang Mahyan’s remarks has certainly shown that Chung, being the Honorary Secretary should clean up his backyard (Sarawak Cricket) before playing a role at national level," said an insider.

It was also revealed that while the Kedah Cricket Association has hardly produced any young talented Kedahans or conducted worthwhile cricket activities in the last decade, Ahmad Feisal, who is Kedah Cricket president was also made Chairman of MCA's High-Performance Committee.

It was learnt that Amy Mokhzani, President of Perlis Cricket Association was also part of the High-Performance Committee.

"If there is truth in this, the immediate question that arises is what levels of cricket has he played to have a role in probably the most important committee in any sports association. Bearing in mind, Malaysia has many good coaches which are more than capable to sit on the MCA High-Performance Committee," said the insider.

Hiccups in the High-Performance Committee

The insider also questioned the role of coach Bilal Assad in the High-Performance Committee, claiming he was re-employed by MCA for the third time in 12 years, right after Mahinda was re-elected in April.

The past exco had removed Bilal in November 2023 for non-performance.

For the record, Bilal failed to lead the national team once again last week in the recent World Cup Qualifier, losing to Qatar & UAE.

"The icing to the cake was the appointment of Cricket Director, Dav Whatmore, the World Cup winning coach that led the Sri Lankan team to the Cricket World Cup in 1996.

"One would think that his appointment was a great move, to oversee the High-Performance programmes for both the Men’s and Ladies’ cricket.

"However, the truth is Dav with a string of accolades has been sidelined and was persuaded to lead the Ladies’ programme instead while Bilal has been kept ahead of everyone else, despite not winning a single worthy tournament.”

Another insider said cricket netizens have been screaming for accountability, but Bilal feels he is untouchable with the solid support he gets from Ahmad Feisal, Amy Mokhzani and both former national captains, Ahmad Faiz, a schoolteacher with the national sports school and Virandeep Singh who also lobbied strongly for Bilal’s reappointment.

Holiday or pay-off?

With all three MCA accounts suspended, the “current MCA Exco” has obviously found another account to channel funds from ICC and or from broadcasting rights.

"It has been stated by MCA that this account is run by an individual/employee, which is highly suspicious as you would expect the national body to have financial SOPs in place.

"To make matters worse, after such a poor performance at the World Cup qualifiers in Oman, they were caught out by having taken a 10-men support team for a 15-men playing team. The question netizens are echoing is that ‘was this sort of a holiday or pay-off’ for the loyalty shown to the coup d’etat team led by Mahinda, Gordon, Ahmad Feisal and Amy Mokzani?".

A conspiracy greater than the FAM debacle?

Adding to this, it was stressed that the Sports Commissioner and Ministry of Youth and Sports should investigate this matter which could be greater than the current FAM debacle.

Mahinda, who was known among his close circle, for his astute judgment seems to have lost his way, in agreeing with Ahmad Feisal and Amy Mokhzani to bring back Bilal as Head Coach, to barter trade for votes from Perlis and Kedah. However, the Sports Commissioner in his authority has not recognised Mahinda and his team as the legitimate Exco of the MCA. This follows a conspiracy by certain members to overthrow the president and deputy of the MCA following claims by a state vice-president that his signature was forged.

In tandem, the Chairman of the Sports Dispute Committee who is aware of the MCA debacle also said that the matter is sub-judice and the court process has to be completed before anything further can be done.

"Sports politics at its best!”

In the regional front, Mahinda lost his position as Chairman of the Development Committee of the Asian Cricket Council.

"If he keeps losing his way, playing politics as they say, at the global level, he will be facing an uphill task at the next ICC AGM, to retain his position as one of the ICC Associate Directors,".

In July this year, the High Court dismissed an application by the MCA seeking an injunction against five of its members that they are no longer executive committee members and cannot act as such.

Justice Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan dismissed the application on the basis that the plaintiff failed to provide any evidence that the defendants had taken steps to hold themselves out as the Exco of MCA.

It was earlier reported that Ahmad Feisal had accused the defendants – one of whom, is Mohammed Iqbal Ali Bin Kassim Ali and the other committee members of meddling in the association’s affairs despite their public resignations.

In addition to Iqbal, he named Dr BN Arun Kumar, Amarjeet Singh, Mahnorizal Mahat and Ahmad Salman Othman as the committee members (defendants).

Mohammed Iqbal had resigned as the MCA president on April 13 but withdrew it and said he would continue in his role for the remainder of his current term.

The Vibes had earlier reported that there was a conspiracy by certain members to overthrow the MCA leadership which was then led by Iqbal (president) and Dr Arun Kumar (deputy).

This follows claims by a state vice-president that his signature was forged in a requisition form by Perak Cricket to remove Iqbal and Dr Arun Kumar. - October 23, 2025

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