State of confusion: Learning from Icuk's exit

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