THE concerns expressed by the Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) regarding the participation of naturalised athletes in the Cambodia SEA Games are well founded, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said.

She said her ministry will look into the matter more deeply after the Games.

“We’ll wait until all the competitions are over. I also had a discussion with the other sports ministers. MCA were confident they could win gold, but when they came up against an opponent who fielded many naturalised athletes they couldn’t,” she said in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, today.

“We have missed winning our target medals but won medals at events that we did not target. We still have hockey, judo, taekwondo, sepak takraw, dancesport and badminton to go.”

As of this morning, Malaysia is in seventh position with 28 gold, 35 silver and 61 bronze medals, with the target set at 40-37-64.

The Malaysian Cricket Association has asked the SEA Sports Federation and the Olympic Committee to conduct an investigation into the organisation of cricket and the qualifications of the athletes participating in this Games.

“In the men’s tournament, Cambodia fielded 13 foreign players, all of whom they claim are naturalised citizens. We noted that (some of) the passport were issued on April 23, 2023; the first match was played on April 29 while the deadline for the shortlist was March 3,” the association said in a statement.

“This begs the question; can amendments be made for as many as 13 players? If so, what is the purpose of a shortlist? Is this kind of behaviour in the spirit of the SEA Games or the spirit of cricket?”

Malaysia, who were favourites for the gold medal, had to settle for silver in the men’s 50-overs and T-20 after losing to Cambodia in the finals, while the women’s 50-overs team won bronze. Malaysia are currently competing in the men’s and women’s T-10 contests.

When cricket was contested for the first and last time at the Games at the Kuala Lumpur 2017 edition, Malaysia won the men’s 50-overs gold, the men’s T-20 silver and the women’s T-20 bronze.

Meanwhile, Yeoh said her ministry has allocated RM400,000 to the KLAS swimming programme for poor children with the aim of reducing drownings.

“According to statistics before the Covid-19 pandemic, as many as 500 children died from drowning a year, which is a high number. Instead of wasting existing swimming pools and not using people’s money for a noble purpose like this, let’s start this programme,” she said.

She said the programme will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan, Kedah, Johor and Pahang and later expanded to other places. – Bernama, May 13, 2023.