MEDIA RELEASE

Below is the press release from the KAKL on issue relating to the victimisation of Kuala Lumpur players by the KAM.


KUALA LUMPUR PLAYERS VICTIMISED


Kuala Lumpur, despite being one of the most active states in developing kabaddi in the country, has been left out of the National Under-20 kabaddi championships to be held in Johor Bahru early next month.

Kuala Lumpur has fallen victim to the political game played by certain key officials of the Kabaddi Association of Malaysia (KAM).

At the KAM council meeting held last Sunday, members were informed that the Kabaddi Association of Kuala Lumpur (KAKL) were no longer affiliates of the KAM and were not eligible to participate in the competition.

The statement was made by the Deputy President of the KAM, Maniam Manikkam, during the meeting in the absence of the president.

The alleged de-affiliation of the KAKL has been done without any reference or adherence to the KAM constitution.

KAKL sees this as clear case of conspiracy and retaliation against the KAKL for questioning the supposititious decisions made by the KAM in the past.

KAKL feels that the travesty laid upon the players was uncalled for and was made with malice.

This is not the first time that certain KAM officials have sabotaged the development of the sport in Kuala Lumpur.

Attempts were made to stop the KL team from participating at the last Presidents Cup competition held in Kangar two years ago. The KAKL successfully unveiled the web of deceit and went on to win the title for the second year running.

Despite being the national champions, not a single Kuala Lumpur player was selected to the last Asian Indoor Games in Macau. KAKL had lodged a report on this matter with the Sports Commissioners Office.

Due to some quick action from the Sports Commissioner, the KAM agreed to call up KL players to the selection trials. But that turned out to be a lie as no new selection trials were held by the national body.

The KAKL had also lodged another report against the KAM two years ago for suspending the KAKL as well an affiliated club and a number of KL players.

Following investigation by the Sports Commissioner, the KAM was found to be guilty and the illegal suspension was lifted immediately with an apology to the KAKL.

Despite numerous attempts by the KAKL to get our events to be sanctioned by the KAM, no reply was given to almost all of our letters.

The only exception was when the KAKL applied for sanction to conduct the International Inter City Kabaddi Championships last year. But that letter came a good six months after an application was made.

Within two weeks of giving out the approval letter, the same KAM officials went out of their way to sabotage the event by asking other affiliates to boycott the tournament.

Despite failing to reply to any of our queries and applications, these officials have continued to sabotage other events conducted by the KAKL.

The KAKL has organised the Rakan Muda Challenge, Rakan Muda Grasscourt Challenge, City Day Kabaddi, Kings of Kabaddi and the ongoing Premier League Kabaddi apart from the various other technical and coaching activities.

KAKL officials namely the Deputy President Maniam Manikkam and vice-president S. Sathasivam have been personally involved in this act of sabotage.

KAKL had also lodged a police report against the KAM Deputy President earlier this year.

Maniam also tried to stop KL based teams from participating at the Negri Sembilan Open last month on the pretext that KAKL was under suspension. When asked for prove of suspension by the organisers, the teams were allowed to play and Maniam even stayed back to give away the medals to the winners.

Last December, the KAM failed to invite the KAKL to their general meeting. A report was again lodged with the Sports Commissioners Office.

On the 16th February, 2009, the Sports Commissioner gave the KAM 14 days to resolve the issue.

On February 23, the KAM president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim in a press statement said that the KAKL would be called for a meeting immediately to resolve the problem.

That was a good five months ago and the KAKL is still awaiting the meeting to be called.

The KAKL also lodged a complaint with the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) Arbitration Tribunal on March 9, 2009. But sadly the Tribunal has yet to act on the matter.

The KAKL is saddened by the attitude of the sports officials involved in the sport.

It is pertinent to note that as a national body the KAM had not conducted any national level senior competitions for the past five years.

The only competition conducted by the KAM in the past two years was Sukma last year. Kuala Lumpur won the gold medal at the demonstration event held under the auspices of the National Sports Council.

The National Under-20 is the first internal event to be conducted by the KAM since the Presidents Cup (Under-23) in mid 2007.

No Technical or Coaching courses has been conducted in almost two years by the KAM.

Although the Asian Indoor Games is due later this year and the Asian Games is due to be held next year, the KAM has yet to even look into the selection and training of the national team.

The last three participation by Malaysian teams at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau, the Asian Beach Games in Bali and the Asian Women’s Championships in Madurai all finished in disastrous fashion for Malaysia.

Malaysia even suffered the ignominy of losing to newcomers Indonesia in Bali. The poor run by Malaysian teams was mainly caused by poor selection process and also haphazard training programmes.

Despite sending a team to the Asian Beach Games, the KAM has never conducted a single local tournament nor have they conducted any technical courses for beach kabaddi in Malaysia.

The selections for the teams to Bali and Chennai were also dubious as states were allowed to send only two players for trials. This despite the fact that some states did not have a single women player with them.

The bulk of the better women players on the country come from Selangor, Negri Sembilan and KL and the decision was not made in the best interest of the game.

Last year, the KAKL had offered to host the Presidents Cup and also create a National Under-15 tournament but after almost a year, the KAM has yet to reply to our request.

The KAKL is concerned with the unprofessional way the KAM is conducting its activities and would like to call upon the top leaders of the association to quit immediately for the benefit of the development of the sport in the country.

The top officials in the KAM have not only failed to develop the game properly but have also set out to sabotage the activities conducted by those questioning their lackadaisical and totally unprofessional way they manage the association.