Bhinneka Sritex to question basketball body's sanction

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi) sanctioned Surakarta-based Bhinneka Sritex on Tuesday after it walked of court during a match against Aspac in the final of the A Mild Kobatama basketball tournament.

Bhinneka, runner-up in the 1999 A Mild Kobatama national basketball league, is banned from participating in any event held by Perbasi for one year and fined Rp 10 million for its ill- behavior, Perbasi secretary-general Yudhi Suyoto said.

Bhinneka said it regretted Perbasi's decision and that it should have sought clarification from the club before making it.

Yudhi said the decision was made after receiving reports from the match supervisor, the organizer and technical delegates consisting of officials from Perbasi and organizers and managers of clubs not competing in the tournament. The report was brought to Perbasi's chairman, Sutiyoso.

"After reporting to Pak Sutiyoso, he asked us what Perbasi should do to the club. Based on our input, he agreed to sanction Bhinneka Sritex," he said.

Doedi Gambiro, Perbasi's official in charge of Kobatama, said that technical delegates, who act as a disciplinary council, had the highest authority and their decision was absolute.

"A technical delegate is the highest committee according to the ground rules and its decision is absolute. If the club wants to appeal, they can send a letter to the Perbasi chairman," he said.

On the basis of this decision, Bhinneka is relegated from the main division and has to compete in the playoffs next year. Yudhi said, however, that Bhinneka's players could play in the 15th National Games (PON) in Surabaya in June.

Bhinneka's assistant manager Tommy Lianggono said his club would appeal the decision to Sutiyoso. He said his club planned to send a letter on Wednesday.

"We want to ask Pak Sutiyoso to spare his time to listen to our clarification. We will list the chronology of the events which prompted the incident, so Pak Sutiyoso will receive a fair explanation from both sides," he said Tuesday.

Scrimmage

The incident occurred on Sunday in the second quarter of the match when Suko Daryono of Aspac was blocking Bhinneka's center Lie Tjui Tek from the net in the key area. Suko knocked the ball out of Lie's hand.

Leading referee Hadi Wasito, who was standing close to the action, looked on while trailing referee Syarifuddin, who was far away in the center field, blew his whistle to declare that Suko had committed a technical foul.

Tommy said his players initially thought that Hadi had awarded a foul to Lie. One of his players, Wahyudi, questioned Hadi. But Wahyudi was seen to throw the ball at Hadi's hand and it was declared a technical foul. After a heated protest, Bhinneka refused to play on and Aspac was declared the winner.

Tommy said his team's dissatisfaction toward referee Hadi Wasito was accumulative. Hadi was on a trial period after making a controversial decision in the 1999 league match which resulted in Panasia Indosyntec of Bandung refusing to continue its match against Mahaka Satria Muda of Jakarta.

He said his club had repeatedly asked Perbasi not to employ Hadi in any matches in which it was featuring. However, Perbasi never responded to its requests.

Doedi said: "The referee committee decides on the referees to lead matches. It's not relevant for a club to ask for a certain referee."

Hadi was not punished after Sunday's incident.

"The Panasia incident was the first to happen since we first staged the Kobatama in 1994. So the club received leniency. For Sunday incident, We did not warn Hadi because he did no wrong. Why should we sanction him?" Doedi said.

Panasia was given a six-month ban in December and was fined Rp 10 million. But the club still ranks fourth in the main division and will not perform in the playoffs in this year's league, which starts in July. (ivy)