Perbasi meets Panasia club for basketball solution

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi) has approached Bandung-based club Panasia Indosyntec to seek a solution to an incident which occurred during the semifinals match of the 1999 A Mild Kobatama national basketball league on Dec. 4 at the Senayan Indoor Stadium.

Perbasi executive director, Sri Sudono Sumarto, told reporters on Monday that he met Panasia owner Awong Hidjaja on Sunday to discuss the problem.

"To be frank, we didn't say anything about the incident. We spoke about our vision of developing basketball in the country. Kobatama has been improving well and we don't want the incident to destroy what we have built," he said.

The incident occurred when defending champion Panasia refused to continue playing in the semifinals against Mahaka Satria Muda, who went on to win this year's Kobatama, due to the "unfair judgment."

The incident followed Hadi Wasito's, one of the referees, decision to give an outball to Panasia but changed his decision after Mahaka protested.

After the match, Panasia coach Danny Kosasih claimed the club would not compete in Kobatama as they could not accept the referee's decision.

Sudono said one of the referees, was carried away by the tense situation during the semifinal and made a human error.

"I think it's natural because until the second half, both teams only scored 39-37 for Mahaka. It showed that they were under a lot of pressure and the situation also affected the coach, officials, referees and also the spectators," he said.

Sudono said both sides had promised to seek the best solution but it would take time because it was not as easy as it seemed.

"Panasia has invested a lot of money to become a big and good club. It has also contributed some players including Johannis Winar, Antonius Joko Endratmo and Kiki Susilo to join the national team," he said.

Sudono said Perbasi had been sending referees to join coaching clinics, both domestically and internationally.

"After Kobatama, our referees fly to Singapore to join coaching clinics there," he said.

Separately, the Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani) official in charge of athletes development said that the organization had yet to start its long-term training program for archers qualified for the 2000 Olympics as Perpani chairman Hayono Isman was in England for two months.

"After the National Games (PON) qualifying round in Bali last month, we decided to send our national archers back to the training camp. Unfortunately, we can't do that without approval from Pak Hayono, who's still in London on family business," he said.

Indonesia has qualified Hamdiah in the World Championships in Riom, France, in July. She will train together with senior Nurfitriyana and Lusia Elizabeth under the supervision of South Korean coach Lee Jae-hyung.

Andi said Perpani had yet to decide on Lee's future as Hayono still wanted him to coach the national team until the Olympics in September 2000, while national coach Donald Pandiangan criticized the South Korean coach, saying Lee was unable to improve Indonesian archers' performances in international events. (yan)