I grew up watching M'sia Cup Final on a small TV set placed high on a cabinet, in a dimly lit "Dewan Makan" in my hostel, Asrama Dr Latiff. The hostel is now long gone, demolished to make way for Ampang elevated hiway, all in the name of development..shhesshh.
Yeah..those days, we're only allowed to watch TV on weekends..ahh I still remember the principal, the late Cikgu Ghani who later took on Ustaz Ismail Kamus in Gombak in PRU 10 after his retirement. Most of my friends still do remember him..for all the wrong reasons I guess.
Back to M'sia Cup...the Dewan Makan then, would be filled to its brim whenever the Final is carried live on TV, all boys, fanatics or otherwise. There would be thousands...err hundreds of us, acne faced boys shouting our support for Selangor, naturally since we all came from all nooks and corners of Selangor. Front seats were reserved to the Fifth Former though...the TV screen barely visible amidst clapping hands, foots et al. Forget about the commentaries...expletives accompanying each missed chance easily drowned the voice of Rahim Razali, even with full audio level on. Did we care? Not one bit...Malaysia Cup is everything for us then.
That was circa 1983-85. In the days leading to the Final, the MSM would provide the insight of the teams contesting the match...strengths vs weaknesses, Super Mokh vs Jamal Nasir sort of things..ala EPL nowadays. The analysis would provide us with lotta things to banter about.
Present day...woke up and scanned the whole 18 pages of NST Sports Sect today, not a single line reporting of Malaysia Cup Final...duh, what gives? Somebody did tell me the Final is on this weekend but how come no coverage at all?
Maybe the timing with Olympics, EPL new season etc..etc..
Bet you 2 full pages would be dedicated to M'sia Cup then in the 80s even with World Cup being played somewhere else.
Ohh reality bites...no one is staunchly following local football anymore these days, yours truly included I must admit. Blame it on EPL, Avril Lavigne, bla,bla and a host of other syndromes...simply M'sia Cup is not our cup of tea anymore.
I can't name the Selangor line up anymore except the more famous ones like Shukor, Safee and Indra Putra. Weekend rituals to football stadia is also long forgotten except whenever EPL teams came calling.
My former neighbour Abang Talib has also not bugged me to watch local football for a long, long time either..or has he installed an Astro decoder in his household? or has he found a new love interest since Kak Jenab left us all 2 years ago?
Whatever it is..its been different or is it indifference? The Malaysia Cup has simply lost it's lustre...sad but true...the gloss been taken over by God knows what.
On a sad note, good luck to Selangor and Kedah, may the best team wins.
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