The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsFixing the match fixing
When a storm comes the PBSI cannot evade responsibility and should instead take necessary measures to prevent the violation of sportsmanship from recurring.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
T
he first badminton title of the year, won by women’s doubles pair Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu on Sunday, seems to offer Indonesia little respite from the shocking match fixing scandals besetting the country recently.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced on Jan. 8 that eight Indonesian players had been found guilty of match fixing practices, mostly during low-level tournaments in 2019. The badminton body banned three of the players for life and prohibited the other five from competition for between six and 12 years and fined them from US$3,000 to $12,000.
These embarrassing findings deal Indonesian badminton a major blow, considering the sport has for decades been a source of national pride at the international level. Olympic gold medals, dozens of trophies and other honors from badminton have raised Indonesia to prominence.
The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) deserves credit for contributing much to the achievements. Similarly, however, when a storm comes the PBSI cannot evade responsibility and should instead take necessary measures to prevent the violation of sportsmanship from recurring.
Following the BWF’s announcement, the PBSI, through its spokesperson Broto Happy, appeared to wash its hands of the humiliation. He said the eight players were no longer a part of the team that underwent a national training program and therefore outside the association’s reach even before the match fixing took place.
Such an excuse does not bode well for an organization mandated to develop national badminton and generate and regenerate quality players. The PBSI, therefore, deals not only with the national team, which may consist of less than 100 players, but the entire badminton ecosystem, including thousands, if not millions, of players.
While match fixing is a serious violation that threatens the values of competition, honesty, hard work and sportsmanship, blaming the perpetrators does not solve the matter. The PBSI’s unfriendly gesture to the eight players has doubled their punishment, which will only do more harm than good. After all, these players, despite the degree of their mistakes, are products of the PBSI.
