RM1 mil cricket grant meant for development now eyed for SEA Games?

KUALA LUMPUR — A historic RM1 million government allocation meant to spur nationwide cricket development is now at the centre of controversy, as fresh documents suggest the Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) intends to redirect the bulk of the funds towards its SEA Games campaign.

Minutes from recent meetings, sighted by Scoop, show MCA’s new leadership declaring that “the RM1 million funding from the Ministry of Finance will be fully allocated to the men’s and women’s high performance programmes for the 2025 SEA Games in Bangkok.”

The papers detail spending on training camps, coaching and competition expenses — a stark departure from the Prime Minister’s budget pledge to grow the sport nationwide.

“If the Prime Minister has made an official announcement in the budget speech in parliament, can a national sports body simply decide to change the purpose of those funds?” one source told Scoop.

“Grassroots development is driven by states, clubs and schools. If all this money now goes into short-term preparation, it risks vanishing into coaches’ fees and administrative costs while young athletes are left to learn cricket from YouTube tutorials.”

The source questioned whether any development programmes had actually been launched before the U-turn.

“With the SEA Games only weeks away, can such a huge sum be effectively put to use in such a short time? Or does it just disappear into a high-performance black hole?”

“The Prime Minister gave this allocation as a vote of confidence in cricket’s future. If the first test ends in failure, it only confirms the long-held belief that associations cannot be trusted with large development funds without strict oversight,” the source added.

Earlier this year, MCA had formed a special committee to manage the RM1 million grant for grassroots cricket — a move publicly backed by Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh.

At the time, Hannah said she was pleased that “the Malaysian Cricket Association has formed a special committee to manage the grant that the Malaysian government will give, which was announced by the PM.”

She added that this showed “a commitment to governance and a commitment to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent in the most efficient manner to achieve the developmental goals that it is meant for.” — September 26, 2025