Mahaka fights on without Erick
JAKARTA (JP): Mahaka Satria Muda of Jakarta still aims to become the best basketball team in the 2001 Kobatama national league despite the resignation of its general manager Erick Thohir.
Simon Pasaribu, who takes over Erick's post in both Mahaka and women's side Mahaputri, expressed optimism to reporters on Wednesday on Mahaka's chance of repeating its 1999 victory in the league which will kick off in March.
"Mahaka still wants to achieve its best in this year's league," he said without elaborating.
Erick, who also attend the briefing, announced his resignation from Mahaka and Mahaputri to begin his new duties as President Director to PT Abdi Bangsa, which runs Republika national daily. He said he wanted to concentrate on his new job.
In addition to Erick's departure, Mahaka also loses three players: Harris who moves to Medan-based Angsapura club, Rifki Irawan who moves to Jakarta-based Dwidasa Mitra and Amran A. Sinta who quit the team to start a new career in a law firm.
Luckily, Mahaka still managed to extend contracts with center Fictor Gideon Roring and is now expected to hire Indonesia Muda (IM) Texmaco top forward Rommy Chandra. Mahaka offered Rommy Rp 45 million (US$4,740) to transfer.
"I can't mention our team members for this year's Kobatama. We may recruit more players from our second division team, but we will only hire one more player from another club," Simon said.
He said the new team would sharpen its skills in the Bhinneka Cup basketball tournament in Surakarta, Central Java from Jan. 24 to Jan. 27.
"We heard that Kobatama defending champion Aspac will hire foreign players for the league. But we prefer to rely on local players," he said.
Erick also said he wanted to resign his post as the 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games women's team manager but will wait for approval from chairman of the Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi) Sutiyoso.
"I have notified Pak Sutiyoso of my objection to this task, because it's a tough job. I heard that the women's training program will be centralized in Surabaya and it's possible for me to leave my job in Jakarta regularly to visit the training. I can't work without any commitment," he said.
Erick was in the spotlight after his success helping Mahaka lift the Kobatama trophy. Darma Bakti Mahaka foundation assigned Erick to manage Satria Muda club in 1999, which it took over, and changed it to Mahaka Satria Muda.
"Becoming a team manager was not easy but it's a promising challenge. Satria Muda finished bottom of 10 teams at the 1998 league and that's the fact I had to deal with the first time I got the job."
"I searched for the reason for its failure as it was the 1996 league's semifinalist. I revamped the team's management and shared with all team members to develop a similar vision and mission," the 30-year old entrepreneur recalled. (ivy)