Bowling was introduced into Malaysia in 1961 when the first bowling centre called "International Bowl" was set up in Penang. In 1965 three more centres were set up one in Perak and two in Selangor. At about the same time, the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) was established under the Presidency of Raja Kamaruddin Udar. The Presidency subsequently changed hands twice between 1965 to 1970 with Murad Hashim and Benny Yeoh as successors.

Early History
In 1970 Malaysia had its first overseas success when it took the Asian bowling fraternity by storm capturing eight gold medals out of nine at the Asian FIQ Championships in Hong Kong. The members of the team then were Johnny Kim, Allan Lee, Allan Hooi, O.B. Lim, Patrick Soh and Y.K. Thong. Undoubtedly their success brought fame to the country and gave bowling a tremendous boost. Malaysia consolidated its position as one of the top Asian Bowling powers when Allan Hooi won the Asian Masters title twice in 1971 and 1972, giving more impetus to the development and popularity of the sport.

Mind you all these successes were substantially the result of a few dedicated individuals pulling together and working on their own to test their skills in the international arenas rather than a Government sponsored, Congress motivated series of activities.

New Leadership and Governing Body: MTBC '74
Expectedly therefore this new found reputation could not be sustained. The individual efforts however fervent could not go forward. The MTBC lacked dedicated leaders in numbers. The few pioneers that began the Sport tried their best but given the lack of funds and the shortage in human resources the Congress went into deregistration in 1973. The rut was only temporary as the following year, Dato' Dr. P.S. Nathan who was also a keen competitive bowler then, took over the helm. He revived the Congress and Malaysian Bowling by renaming it MTBC '74 and then set out to write its Constitution, its Playing Rules and Regulations, which stand to this very day, and then proceeded to get it affiliated to the OCM and subsequently to the World Governing body of Tenpin Bowling then known as FIQ.

Under his innovative and committed leadership, bowling began to flourish and gain international distinction. Setting the tone of leadership by example the good Dato won the first Sea Games Bowling Gold for Malaysia in 1975 in Bangkok and at the same time set a SEA Games record which stood the test of time for 20 long years before being broken by the entry of multiple bowling ball usage, bowling lane blockage and the flooding of more exotic balls into the playing arena. Three years later he went on to win the first Asian Games Bowling Gold for Malaysia at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok together with Edward Lim, Koo Boo Jin, Allan Hooi, Hubert Lee and our National Coach Holloway Cheah in the 5-Men Team event.

During his tenure, Malaysia continued to grow by leaps and bounds, and took a quantum leap to a series of high profile wins at the International arenas. The most prominent ones being the 3-Men Team Gold and a Bronze medal in the Masters of the 1979 FIQ World Championships in Manila. The Trios were Allan Hooi, Edward Lim and Koo Boo Jin. The later also landed the Bronze in the Masters. For that, Bowling was named 1979 Sports Team of the Year while Koo Boo Jin and Shirley Chow (who finished 9th in the same championship) were named 1979 National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. Michael Chua, Allan Lee, Y. H Foong, Ringo Wang, Richard Phua, Y. K. Thong, Datin Malathy Nathan and Pearly Chong were all regular winners at International Tournaments who helped put Malaysia in the World's bowling map in the 70s and 80s.

In the late 80s and early 90s, we saw the younger bowlers ready to take over from the veterans. Karen Lian, Lydia Kwah, Lisa Kwan, our youth bowlers Sharon Low, Azidi Ameran and our bowling queen, the then 14 year-old Shalin Zulkifli have all done Malaysia proud by capturing many international titles. The most prominent ones of course being the Silver medal in the Masters of the 1991 FIQ World Championships in Singapore by Lisa Kwan, and the 17th SEA Games' 6 Golds and 6 Silvers success by our National Team in Singapore in June 1993. Apart from 1979, Michael Chua was named National Sportsman of the Year 1985, Karen Lian was Most Promising Sportswoman in 1988, Lydia Kwah and Lisa Kwan were National Sportswoman of the Year 1990 and 1991 respectively.

Parallel to all of these bowler achievements and even before the leap forward, the infrastructure was put in place.

1. This consisted of membership recruitment and promotion,
2. Development, writing and implementation of elite bowling programmes,
3. Development, writing and implementation of youth bowling programmes,
4. Development, writing and implementation of coaching of coaches and coaching of bowlers programmes.
5. Development, writing and implementation of roving coaching programmes as Malaysia is a spread-out Nation with East coast States and East Malaysian States hundreds of miles apart,
6. Development and implementation of marketing and finance programmes

MTBC's members are not individuals but member States. It began with only 4 member States, Selangor, Federal Territory, Penang and Perak and then grew to its present status of 15 member States: Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Perlis, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor, Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan. The total individual membership is now around 2,500 only. These are fee-paying competitive sport bowlers. They do not include the large number of casual recreational bowlers which could amount to at least 15,000.

There seems to be an unwillingness among many to commit themselves to a regular league play which would involve weekly competition and nominal fees. They prefer to bowl as and when they like and where they like which do not tie them down to a regular appearance.

The international leadership of its leaders
Our Bowling administrators meanwhile have also done Malaysia proud. Dato' Dr. P.S. Nathan was elected President of the Asian Bowling Federation in 1984 and later became the first Malaysian to head a World Sports Association when in 1987 he was elected President of the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA). He was re-elected in 1991 unopposed for another four year term and once again in 1999 for a third four year term.

Our late Deputy President, Mr Peter Yap was also another of Malaysian Bowling administrators elected to International office and this in 1992.

Presently our Secretary General Mr Sidney Tung is the Vice President of the Asian Bowling Federation now in his 3rd Term.

The Malaysian Tenpin story
The story of Tenpin Bowling in Malaysia is a delight to tell. It is manifestly a many spleandoured thing. It is in truth the story of the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC '74) and above all it is a dream come true of its three founding fathers:

• Dato Dr. P.S. Nathan: President,
• The late Mr. Peter Yap: the Secretary General (Deputy President at the time of his demise in 1997) and
• Mr. Stanley Lim: Hon Treasurer.

Their dream was to create history. To take Tenpin Bowling to the dizzy heights of world championship gold that Badminton enjoyed those days in the 60s and 70s.

With an empty kitty to begin with, its President realized that to take the traditional path of creating first a large Pyramid base that conventional wisdom then demanded before world supremacy could be achieved was going to be an eternal struggle. He decided to be a contrarian. To do an inverse Pyramid path to the dream.

He took a handful of talented and committed bowlers including himself, got them to plough in their own funds, train regularly, seek sponsorship on their own personal credibility, seek short term coaching (as that was all that funds would permit) participate in as many International Tournaments that self-raised sponsorship would stretch, and thus seek international stardom. This they did and within one year. They won the SEA Games Gold the very next year in 75, and within another 2 years the Asian Gold and within yet another year the World Gold in 79!

Such meteoric rise to the pinnacle of world supremacy did not come down with yesterday's rain nor by wishful thinking. It took a handful of determined visionaries with a passion for the Sport, smart training (emphasis on the word "Smart") an insatiable appetite for the victory podium, confidence in their own ability and above all the ability to think smart and act with confidence in the distracting cacophony of cheers and jeers at World and Continental championships. The only reward for these achievements then was a Pagoda one Ringgit T shirt with the word Malaysia at the back. Such were the sports soldiers of yesteryears.

The take home message
The take home message from this story is that the shortest route to international name and fame in Sports for developing Nations (strapped for funds and constrained by the sheer numbers needed for the traditional broad base pyramid) is to go the inverse Pyramid route as adopted so successfully by the MTBC but with the following caveat. The selected athletes for this inverse pyramid module must have the ingredients as spelled out above. Those embodiments are a sine qua non for success.

The present
The same ingredients have continued to prevail with the National Squads presently assembled and hence the continued successes in International Bowling.

Malaysian bowlers have come home with medals with each and every International Tournament however big or small. A record the MTBC is proud of and the Nation equally.

All the infracture modules are in place, implemented and bearing handsome fruits with Council members active and selfless.

Importantly the National Sports Council has been an unwavering financial provider for the implementation of all these programmes and for the training and overseas competition of our bowlers, not to mention picking up the salary tabs of our International Coaches for which the MTBC is ever grateful. In short, without the NSC's support none of all of MTBCs achievements would have materialized.

Summary
In summary, the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Teams, both seniors and juniors, are the envy of most Bowling Nations.

The Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress, a pride and joy to the Nation, to the National Sports Council, and to the Government. Well organized, a closely knit family culture the norm, no politics, always transparent, sufficiently funded, an excellent development programme for the youth, the elite, the coaches and the technicians and to cap it all, an experienced, honest and totally voluntary Council member force always proactive and never basking in its past glory.

Presently Malaysian Bowling is riding on a high:

1. Its ladies team are the reigning World Tenpin Team Cup champions and the reigning WTBA World Champions in the same year - 2003, an honour no Nation in the history of world Bowling can boast of.
2. Its men's team are the reigning World Tenpin Team Cup Champions.
3. And its boys Team are the reigning World Youth silver medalists losing out only by 6 pins. - 2004.
   This triplets of World crowns, all contemporary are an achievement which will go down in Malaysian history as never before and never after. (We are looking to see if this could translate to a world record in the Guinness book.)
4. Its President has been World Tenpin Bowling President for 3 terms of a total of 12 years and presently the Life President of the World Tenpin Bowling Association besides being the first Asian to be elected President of a world governing body of a Sport.
5. Its Tournament organizational capabilities are second to none, having successively hosted the SEA Games (thrice), the Asian Bowling Championships, the AMF world Cup, the first World Tenpin Team Cup, the Commonweal Games Tenpin Bowling event, 28 successive annual Malaysian International and Malaysian National closed Tenpin Bowling championships and most latterly the 15th World Tenpin Bowling Championships whereat MTBC was declared by unanimous acclamation as the best organizer of World Bowling Championships and the Championship itself the best ever in its 52 year history.
6. Other accolades are:
   AWARDS:
   1. Shalin Zulkifli voted World Bowler of the Year 1994 by the World Bowling Writers Association.
   2. Shalin Zulkifli voted Asian Bowler of the Year 2000, 2001& 2002.
   3. Winner of the National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year 12 times - 1979 (Koo Boo Jin & Shirley Chow), 1985 (Michael Chuah), 1990 (Lydia Kwah), 1991 (Lisa Kwan), 1993 (Lisa Kwan), 1994 (Shalin Zulkifli), 1995 (Sharon Low), 1996 (Shalin Zulkifli), 1997 (Shalin Zulkifli), 2001 (Shalin Zulkifli) & 2002 (Shalin Zulkifli).
   4. Best Women's Team of the year 1996 and 2003.
   5. Best Men's Team of the year 1979 and 2003.
   6. Man of the Year Award - (MTBC'74) by New Straits Times - 1996
   ACHIEVEMENTS:
   1. World Championships - 2 Gold, 5 Silver, 1 Bronze
   2. World Tenpin Team Cup - 2 Gold, 2 Bronze , 4th placing 4 times
   3. World Tenpin Masters - 1 Gold
   4. World Ranking Masters - 1 Silver
   5. AMF Bowling World Cup - 2 Silver, 3 Bronze, 4th placing 3 times
   6. Commonwealth Games - 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
   7. Asian Games - 5 Gold, 3 Silver, 6 Bronze
   8. Asian Championships - 6 Gold, 16 Silver, 13 Bronze
   9. SEA Games - 33 Gold, 36 Silver, 33 Bronze
   10. World Youth Championships - 3 Gold, 5 Silver, 4 Bronze
   11. Asian Youth Championships - 10 Gold, 12 Silver, 9 Bronze
   12. Asian School Championships - 28 Gold, 20 Silver, 18 Bronze & 4 times overall country champion
   
   AND MANY MORE, TOO LONG AND NOT SO HIGH PROFILE TO LIST...

   Quo Vadis?

   Such excellence at competition,

   Such eminence at local and international administrative leadership,

   Such impeccable competence at competition organization at all levels.

   Where do we go from here?

   We will march on. Tread the very same well trodden and proven path, bite the bullet when and if necessary, strain every sinew and fibre in our Council members, all to cling on to this all round inimitable excellence which was never easy to achieve and which will be even more difficult to emulate.

   Dato' Dr. P.S. Nathan
   3rd September, 2004