Umpire chairman strikes back

11/05/2002

THE Malaysian Hockey Federation Umpires Board (MHFUB) chairman V.
Kulasingam came out strongly to reprimand Malaysia's No 1 umpire Amarjit
Singh for speaking out against the board.
Kulasingam said that Amarjit should know better than to take the war to
the Press because there are channels and avenues for him to make his stand
during the sub-committee meetings.
"We have a code of ethics in the board, and he who has spoken about it
without going through the proper channels and he will find out the
consequences soon," said Kulasingam.
Using a mutated version of the old adage, Kulasingam said that "one
umpire does not make rain."
Ipoh based Amarjit Singh, who has the distinction of blowing the whistle
at World Cup and Olympics, the recent being the Kuala Lumpur World Cup,
made five major allegations on the MHFUB but their chairman Kulasingam was
not willing to reply to even one.
The allegations are:
* MHFUB has an indifferent attitude towards developing and promoting
umpiring.
* MHFUB had not done much to promote umpiring at the district and state
level
* MHFUB are cash-rich but not conducting courses, seminars, dialogues to
chart the future of umpires.
* ALL the officials of the MHFUB do is go on a nationwide tour to
conduct fitness test at it's lowest level early in the year and that's end
of it.
* ONE never gets to see representatives from Sarawak, Pahang, Terengganu
and Kelantan near hockey venues, but they held portfolios during the
recent World Cup eventhough they cannot produce caliber umpires for the
Razak Cup or the national league from their states.
* THE MHFUB 2001 Rules Book were not completely distributed to the
umpires and now the 2002 Rules Book will be out in two months.
"Amarjit must first look at himself and see whether he has exhausted all
the avenues before making his grouses public. Perak, where Amarjit comes
from, is one of our most active affiliates and he should have approached
them first.
"I am not willing to say that whatever he has accused us of is true or
false, but by our (MHFUB) actions in the next few months everyone will
know who is speaking the truth," said Kulasingam.
Saying that the MHF have been unfairly accused of not doing their job
properly, Kulasingam challenged all those who have bad-mouthed the MHF to
prove that there has been no development in hockey.
(END)