KUALA LUMPUR -“If not now, when?”
That was the response from Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) owner Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim about his enthusiasm in sponsoring the cost of planting new Zeon Zoysia grass at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here.
The Tunku Makhota of Johor said the drastic change to replace the cowgrass at the official pitch of the Harimau Malaya was necessary, as the quality of the pitch’s surface would influence efforts to improve the national squad’s playing style to keep pace with modern football.
“I have been talking about pitches for five years so I hope other teams (in the Malaysian League) will also take the initiative to change them.
“If can, I want all teams to evolve because that thing (pitch) will play a role in terms of our football game, so it will be more effective in the modern football era in terms of strategy and tactics. So that’s why we started here (National Stadium) first, ”he said.
Tunku Ismail said this at a press conference after inspecting the pitch of the National Stadium field which saw him also agree to present a replica of a check with the value written “pitch conversion cost” to symbolise the contribution he would be making for the change, yesterday.
He said that he wanted to see not only JDT and the national squad able to play according to the style of modern football, but all teams in the country could also adopt the new pattern of the game.
This, according to him, was because he observed that there are national players who were seen as very clumsy when playing abroad because they are used to the cowgrass pitch used by most teams in the country.
“You can see (the clumsiness) from the national team because most of the recruitment of players comes from other teams that are used to playing on that type of picth (cowgrass).
“If we can synchronise all the picthes to be the same where every team can play modern football, and when you have a national call up, these players will not be clumsy in following the training routine and how the coaches need them to play,” he said.
In the meantime, Tunku Ismail said that he may increase the amount of sponsorship that has been given to help get the machines needed for field maintenance work, including the “vertidrain” machine.
“We need vertidrain machines where we drill holes in pitch to give more oxygen and also water channels. Here the soil is peat and using cowgrass, we do not have a particular machine where the field is very compact, there is no oxygen and that’s why the water stagnates and no water comes out,” he said.
Work to plant the new grass at the National Stadium at a cost of between RM1.2 and RM1.4 million sponsored by Tunku Ismail will only begin in January 2023.
The delay in replacing the pitch, which is expected to take about four months, is due to the stadium’s commitment to host several events at the official venue of the Harimau Malaya this year.
However, the process will begin as soon as possible as the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) and Stadium Corporation Malaysia (PSM) will work closely with the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium owned by JDT in Iskandar Puteri, Johor.
