KUALA LUMPUR: This year's Malaysian Hockey League, already in its semifinal stage, has been one of the least anticipated in recent years. The crowd has abated in significant numbers and the outcome of matches are appallingly predictable. One of the obvious reason for this is KLHC's supremacy.

They defended their crown when the curtains came down on the league a couple of weeks ago. However, they were the hands down favourites for the title and it would have been unnatural if they weren't. After all, they are represented by most of the national team's core players.

This supremacy has inflicted enough damage on the country's top flight hockey league. There is also another team which not only dampened the hopes of budding local talents to play in the MHL but also wasted RM500,000 in pursuing their ambitions through channels which paid no dividends whatsoever.

Penang outfit PISC-Nur Insafi signed no less than 15 players from India and Pakistan this season. However, their imports bore little, if not no fruit at all, as they finished second from bottom in the league and they were knocked out in the quarterfinal stage.

With so much undone, there are calls to put a cap on the number of internationals and foreign imports representing a team. But the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) appear to be unmoved and insist that the current rules will not be amended because "teams should be allowed to do what they want with their budget".

"The rules were set awhile ago and no one said anything. Plus I haven't heard any official complaints yet. All the teams are living on their own budget. It's their money, we can't tell them what to do with it. We are just happy there are teams making the effort to instill more competitiveness into the league.

"And as for Nur Insafi, I'm surprised too, honestly. I thought they were going to bring in real good players. Unfortunately, that was not the case. But we will not be limiting the registration of foreign players anytime soon.

"The league is a bowl and we need the ants. Without the sugar, the ants are never going to come," said MHF secretary general Hashim Yusoff — referring to the fans as ants, obviously.

Hashim added that the other "ants" were live television coverages. He said MHF hoped more will follow suit after some of the MHL matches were aired live on Astro.

"For this to materialise, we need to entice the local hockey crowd. They want to watch good hockey and imported players are supposed to provide that extra spice," he added.