Lawn Bowl Team Facing Problems

We have heard that Malaysia's football and hockey teams are not having fit players prior to important matches and thus the poor team results.

In the Malaysian lawn bowl team, it's totally different altogether. In the team, both Siti Zalina Ahmad while Norhashimah Ismail, have been suspended for 18 months and 12 months respectively by their Malaysian Lawn Bowls Federation ("MLBF").

Reasons given for their suspensions:-
* Siti Zalina Ahmad - alleged misconduct while undergoing training at the Bukit Kiara training centre here on 26 Oct where she was alleged to have got into a fight with another member of the team, attacked a MLBF official and refused to follow instructions from the coach.

Medals won / honours:-
- singles gold medal @ 1998 Commonwealth Games
- a singles and pairs gold @ 2008 Asian Lawn Bowls Championships
- Malaysian Olympian of the Year in 2002
- short listed for the 2008 Malaysian Sportswoman of the Year Award

* Norhashimah Ismail - allegedly failing to stop the fight and not acting as the captain of the women’s national team.

Medals won / honours:-
- team gold @ 2006 Commonwealth Games
- consecutive wins @ Asian Lawn Bowls Championships since 2001

But both players cried foul over their suspensions. Reasons for crying foul - she claimed that the real reasons for the action was because an official in MLBF was unhappy that she would not entertain that person’s request to “fix” a match to allow another player win a championship last year.

That's a serious allegation but till todate, MLBF or its officials has not responded to this allegation. Suspending the team captain for failing to stop a fight? First hearing such suspension. What were the other officials doing then? Only one official at that point of time? What about other coaching staff? No one else was there?

Here you have top quality players who have medals from top competitions and who are ready to play for the country ............. unfortunately such things happened. Are the two players telling the truth?

It doesn't stop there. Kamarul Aizad Othman, another lawn bowl player, has decided to quit the national team. Reason - feeling despaired by the action of a majority of MLBF officers and came forward to expose this to help my friends who had been victimised by a MLBF officer.

Medals won:-
- gold medal @ 2003 Asian Cup championship

My My ............... more to come ......

Another former national athlete, who requested not to be identified, claimed that he was also victimised by the officer and was forced to leave the national squad. "I have never sent a letter asking to leave the national squad, but the officer informed the MLBF president that I did," he said, adding that he did lodge a report with the federation, but no action was taken.

And hopefully this is the last from the lawn bowl national squad ........

A former athlete in the back-up squad, Noorazwin Ibrahim, claimed that the officer had forced her to "sell" a game during the 2006 Champion of Champions. She said she lodged a report on the matter with the NSC, but no action was taken against the officer.

I salute you, Kamarul Aizad Othman, for standing up for your friends!

Reading: I was suspended for refusing to fix match, says Siti Zalina - Star
Reading: Former National Lawn Bowls Athletes Claim Victimisation By MLBF Official - Bernama
Tags: Siti Zalina Ahmad, Norhashimah Ismail, Lawn Bowl, Malaysian Lawn Bowls Federation, MLBF, Kamarul Aizad Othman, Noorazwin Ibrahim