Wake-up call for IBF
Gursharan Singh
Badminton events at the recently concluded Busan Asian Games will be remembered for a long time for wrong calls by line judges and coaches of two teams hitting them (line judges). The coaches argued that Korean line judges were the culprits as they were helping the home side or doing what suited the Koreans. 

Green adds to Germany’s joy
Amardeep Bhattal
The selection of German hockey star Michael Green for the prestigious FIH 'player of the year' award at Perth on December 5 could not have come at a more opportune time. With Germany already the reigning world champions having won their maiden World Cup at Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, Green's selection for the top award confirms the fact that Germany's status as the top hockey playing nation has been further cemented. 

Hockey schedule needs review
Ramu Sharma
A few years ago the Indian Hockey Federation had made public the view that it would like to emulate the All-India Football Federation and conduct a national league. A report in the media last week revived the idea and with some embellishments to sound more attractive.

Wake-up call for IBF
Gursharan Singh

Badminton events at the recently concluded Busan Asian Games will be remembered for a long time for wrong calls by line judges and coaches of two teams hitting them (line judges). The coaches argued that Korean line judges were the culprits as they were helping the home side or doing what suited the Koreans. One coach even went to the extent of remarking that the Korean line judges needed a win with the home teams riding on their shoulders. As a referee, I have never seen a match being held up for more than two hours for any reason whatsoever. The first men’s singles team final between Korea (Shen Seung Mong) and Indonesian (Toufik Hidayat) saw many controversial decisions by the line judges. For Indonesia every thing depended on Toufik’s victory while the Koreans were determined not to lose this vital match. The Korean won the first game by 15-13 but this game was punctuated by protests by Taufik against line judges. The ‘high drama’ started in the second game when a line judge gave a point against Taufik while he thought he had won the point. At this juncture Toufik refused to continue playing. Indonesian officials entered the court and the match was stopped for the time being. The wordy duel between the Indonesian officials and line judges created another unpleasant situation which was aggravated when the Indonesian coach hit a line judge on his head. The confusion continued for more than two hours before the match restarted resulting in victory for Korea with the scoreboard reading 15-13, 13-15 and 17-16.

Lee Hyan II won the second singles easily for Korea defeating Rony Agustinus 15-3, 15-5. Sigit Budiario and Chandra Wijaya gave Indonesia their first match when they defeated Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Yong Sung in a closely fought match by a margin of 15-12, 15-10. However, Kim Dong Moon and Ha Tae Kween took just 30 minutes to demolish the Indonesian pair of Halim Heryanto and Tri Kus Harjanto in the second doubles by a margin of 15-3, 15-6 and won the men’s team events trophy for Korea.

In the women’s team final, People’s Republic of China defeated Korea 3-1. The Chinese won both the singles and one doubles match and last one doubles match.

The Busan Games showed the tremendous improvement made by Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong.

The men’s singles title went to unseeded Indonesian Taufik Hidayat. On the way to title he defeated Japan’s Masuda Keita 15-12, 15-12, thrashed Hashim Muhamma Hafiz of Malaysia 15-11, 15-5, Seung Mo of Korea 15-9, 15-11 and Korean Lee Hyun II 15-7, 15-9 in the final.

India’s best hope Pullela Gopichand could manage to reach the quarter-finals only. He had an easy first round against Yong Francisco whom he defeated 15-0, 15-0 but had to work hard in the second round against Ponsana Boonsak of Thailand to win by a margin of 17-15, 15-6 and lost to Korean Shon Seung Mo 9-15, 11-15. India’s Abhinn Shyam Gupta lost in the first round to the Indonesian Hendrawan by 5-15, 5-15. Surprisingly, no official accompanied Gopi to the Games. A former Delhi player Ashish, now working with TV channel, was seen giving him company and moral support.

The women’s singles was an all China affair with Zhou Mi defeating Geng Ruina in a one-sided match with the scoreboard reading 11-1, 11-1.

About the bad calls by line judges, the I.B.F. needs to take some strong steps so that the unpleasant scenes witnessed at Busan are not repeated. The national badminton associations owe it to the lovers of the game, smooth and fair conduct of the matches. There is an urgent need to punish those officials who ‘rewrite rules’ to see their country’s players win.

The referee is there to control and conduct the matches but his areas of dispensing justice are limited. A referee can change a line judge on the recommendation of the umpire as was done in the final at Busan. At Busan other umpires were asked to sit as line judges. Also it was disgusting to see coaches to Indonesia and China entering the playing arena and hitting the line judges. It is high time that the International Badminton Federation (IBF)wakes up and frames rules to put an end to these ugly incidents. How about considering the idea of ‘second umpire’ in badminton as we have a third umpire in cricket so as to avoid controversial decisions?

Green adds to Germany’s joy
Amardeep Bhattal

The selection of German hockey star Michael Green for the prestigious FIH 'player of the year' award at Perth on December 5 could not have come at a more opportune time. With Germany already the reigning world champions having won their maiden World Cup at Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, Green's selection for the top award confirms the fact that Germany's status as the top hockey playing nation has been further cemented. Last year, the same award went to German captain Florian Kunz and the same was announced during the tenth World Cup at Kuala Lumpur on March 6 this year.

Like Kunz, Green is also a senior member of the German squad with over 250 international appearances. Aged 30, Green has been representing Germany continuously for the past 10 years. He is a doctor by profession and specialises in trauma and orthopaedic surgery.

During the World Cup at Kuala Lumpur, he was a key member of the German team and coach Bernhard Peters singled him out for praise on more than one occasion.

In the present German side, Michael Green is the second highest capped player after Christian Mayerhofer who has figured in over 300 internationals. Among other senior players are Christoph Bechmann and Mayerhofer.

Wearing the No. 13 jersey, usually not the favourite, during the World Cup at Kuala Lumpur, Michael Green proved to be rather lucky for his team. He stepped in to help friends during 'emergencies'. When skipper Florian Kunz forgot to bring his favourite stick to Kuala Lumpur, Green extended a helping hand. Green passed on the message to his mother who brought the stick from Germany. When Germany clashed with Pakistan subsequently, the winning goal by Kunz with the same stick brought cheers in Peters' team. And Kunz had a word of appreciation for his friend Michael Green. "Without his timely help, perhaps things would have been different," he quipped in an informal chat later.

Hockey schedule needs review
Ramu Sharma

A few years ago the Indian Hockey Federation had made public the view that it would like to emulate the All-India Football Federation and conduct a national league. A report in the media last week revived the idea and with some embellishments to sound more attractive. A national hockey league is indeed a must in the present context and will go a long way in filling a major void.

There are, however, certain ground rules which need to be observed if the NHL is to mean anything. For quite some years now the IHF’s major responsibility, the national hockey championships, has not been given its due. The competition is held in a haphazard manner often with the sole intention of going through a formality. Understandably the IHF has its own problems and money is a major issue. But there is little to gain if a tournament, that too a national championship, is hurried through, the preliminaries and the final stages, all finished in a matter of a week or 10 days.

One remembers the national championships held in Pune in the late 80s where the whole programme of the league was concentrated in four or five days with as many as eight matches played in one day. It was not fair to the game nor to the teams and the spectators. A national championship has to grow on the spectators and the teams and allow it to mature into a competition of a high grade. The lack of proper venues and a sponsor who is not in a hurry is the need of the hour.

A minimum of three weeks should be given to the nationals. There is no point in holding the league matches in four venues. It would be best to limit the number of venues to two and conduct not more than two matches per day. It may asking for too much but this time limit on the nationals and major tournaments is not helping hockey at all. Here I must digress and state that football, too, is going through the same phase as far as the tournaments are concerned.

Take the Nehru Hockey Tournament held in Delhi. When started it was the biggest boon to Indian hockey. In fact from its very inception it has provided almost all the players who have downed India colours. But then it used to be conducted over a period of a little less than three weeks, starting on November 14 and the final held on and around December 5 or 6, with provision for replay. With penalty-strokes now deciding a stalemate the question of replay now does not arise. But November 14 to December 5 was a long enough period to savour and cherish some good hockey. These days the tournament is over even before it gathers momentum.

The Indian Hockey Federation must allow more time to the Nehru organisers, at least for the senior tournament. This year for instance, the super league started on a Tuesday and even before one was able to digest the results came the final on Monday. For all practical purposes the main tournament was held for just eight days. What a difference from the olden days when it used to last for three weeks. No wonder the Nehru tournament lack the charm it had once spread.

Coming back to the idea of national league the Indian Hockey Federation would do well to hold the league in just two centres and gap given only between the two legs. After its showing in the Champions Trophy and despite the defeat at the hands of Korea in the Asian games, Indian hockey appears to have risen above the mediocrity in which it had often been wallowing. There is certainly a vast improvement and a definite change of attitude in the players.

The Nehru Hockey Tournament, though capsuled to less than a week this year, was a great success in terms of the general standard of the game. With rare exceptions the league matches were well fought as were the two semifinals. The final was a well contested match and what was more important was the almost negligible amount of interruptions. If the umpires were seen in good light it was also partly due to the change in rules and certainly the players who were much more positive. There was of course the prima donna act of temperamental Dhanraj Pillay. By sheer class he has elevated himself to the position of the first citizen of Indian Hockey. He should thus be setting a good example. Unfortunately in the Nehru final this year, he decided to follow some bad examples.

India’s weakness exposed

Kudos to West Indies for their performance at Vijayawada. It was really a test of temperament, ability and efficiency for both teams. The star-studded team of Samuel, Gayles, Sarwan and Wavel Hinds fully exposed the weaknesses of Indian bowlers. They proved that they are strong enough to win without Brian Lara and Mervyn Dillon. On the contrary the Indians had nothing in them without Sachin, Ganguly, Zaheer and Harbhajan. It was a match again dominated by batsman. All the Indian bowlers were sent on a leather hunt and humiliated before the home crowd. If we want to see our team as a World Cup winning side, we should bring about improvement in bowling. There is a scope of improvement in fielding. Perpetual change of batting order will not benefit much.

The team selected for the New Zealand tour is quite balanced.

VIPUL KANSAL, Ambala City

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