Most unpleasant saga

Most unpleasant saga

Singaporeans had largely forgotten the episode and put it behind them. Last August, jubilation that the women’s table tennis team had won silver at the Beijing Olympic Games was dampened by a very public spat. This occurred after the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) blamed team manager Anthony Lee and head coach Liu Guodong for the early elimination of top male player Gao Ning.

The disagreeable squabble was a long-running saga, with many angry members of the public writing to The Straits Times to complain of the STTA’s ill-timed attacks on Lee and Liu. Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan had to intervene to resolve the matter.

This month, memories of the unpleasant episode were stirred up again when the Singapore National Olympic Council announced that there would be no winner for the Coach of the Year category in the annual sports awards.

The nominees were passed over whereas Liu, considered a sure thing, had not been nominated by the STTA. Its reasons: he lacked integrity and was unable to command the respect of his players. The STTA did not explain what this meant. An indignant Liu, who had left Singapore for a coaching job in Indonesia, returned to seek clarification from the STTA. But last Monday, he left an angry man after five days here without the matter being concluded.

This is just so much needless unpleasantness. The outcome of the whole saga is the worst of all possible outcomes for the STTA. It may have good reason not to make public its problems with Liu. In that case, it could have conducted itself better, such as not making charges it would not substantiate publicly. Chinese netizens have flamed the STTA and Singapore, after Liu spoke to the Chinese media.

As Singapore wants to be a sports nation of some standing and foreign talent will continue to be drawn here even as local ones are groomed, sports bodies will have to learn to act sensibly and with decorum.

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