State of confusion: Learning from Icuk's exit

Icuk Sugiarto's sudden resignation from the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) earlier this week left the Sudirman Cup team without a manager. Although PBSI quickly shifted into damage control mode and said a new replacement would be appointed by next week, will it be a case of too little, too late for Indonesia's hopes in the mixed team competition?

For observers of PBSI activities, including sports reporters, Icuk's departure seemed destined to come sooner or later, and most likely in a flurry of angry recriminations.

And so it did.

Opinionated and prickly, Icuk would sometimes grumble to reporters about the real or perceived limitations on his powers as head of development, duties which included overseeing the National Badminton Training Center and preparing the Sudirman Cup team for Beijing in May.

Part of the administrative team appointed by new PBSI chairman Sutiyoso in 2004, Icuk is known as a good coach and talent scout. Yet he seemed to lack the requisite qualities -- including being a good communicator, showing a willingness to listen and adapt to constraints -- of a manager.

Instead of embarking on a gladhanding, affable approach to changing an entrenched, highly political organizational system from within, the 1983 men's singles World Champion tended to rub people the wrong way.

The most notorious incident was his verbal butting of heads -- in front of reporters! -- with similarly hot-tempered Athens gold medalist Taufik Hidayat about a bonus allocation earlier this year.

"It seemed every time we met him he was complaining about something," said one reporter who covers the national center. "Icuk speaks softly, but it's always very emotionally charged, sharp criticism."

Predictably, he exited in a snit, saying the association handed him an "us-or-them" ultimatum after he failed to attend an April 1 meeting due to an overseas commitment with the Office of the State Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs.

Others, however, contend Icuk was already on dangerous ground because of Indonesia's less than stellar performances in major European tournaments this year.

Whatever the reason, Icuk's resignation has been accepted and PBSI has said it will keep things as normal as possible for players in the run-up to the Sudirman Cup. But with less than a month until the event begins, the association is taking its own sweet time in picking a replacement.

On Thursday, the association announced that a new manager for the Beijing campaign would not be appointed until next week, after Sutiyoso, who is also Jakarta governor, has returned from a foreign trip. For the Indonesian team, already at a huge disadvantage in facing the mighty Chinese on home soil, the weeklong vacuum without a captain at the helm may prove insurmountable.

The Icuk affair and its handling point to several problems that continue to beset the association, as well as other sports bodies in the country.

For one, it's debatable if Icuk was the right man for the job, but he was certainly the right man in the right camp in 2004. It's still very much a case of who you know, not what you know, in getting ahead in sports' political jockeying.

Like parties vying for position in a seething political arena, sports organizations are hives of ambition among vested interests.

Thus, regardless of whether administrators are succeeding in their objectives, their time will be up once the political merry- go-round goes in the other direction.

The association's biding its time until the big boss returns to provide his stamp of authority also underscores the reluctance to delegate power to competent individuals. Yes, the chief should be willing to take responsibility, but he or she must also be able to execute swift, prudent and firm decisions when an emergency situation dictates.

For a longtime badminton observer, it's yet another indication of the pervasive fear of giving up a bit of power or sharing knowledge with others that inhibits the sport's development.

"It's still the case that coaches feel they cannot give out information on what they are doing because they don't want other players to get better than their team. It's not like in China, where coaches from across the country gather for meetings on standardized coaching, and it has obviously worked wonders."

There you have it: Better judgment decisions, the delegation of power and thinking of the greater good instead of insular interests are what Indonesian badminton -- and sports -- need to succeed.

Nothing groundbreaking about the above, but still the points have failed to sink in as local badminton backslides from its extended glory days of the 1970s to early '90s. Here's hoping that one day soon we will finally get the message, and without all the accompanying drama.

-- Bruce Emond