Fist of Fury
FIST OF FURY
A SIMPLE Kuala Lumpur Div 3 hockey game at Pantai Stadium last night took a bizarre turn when one of the umpires attacked a spectator. The umpire, Alwin Joshen Ganasan, now faces a lengthy suspension. The incident occurred when SMK St Johns were playing Kepong Baru.
The incident forced the game to be interrupted for about 10 minutes before order was restored and a third umpire, Rosli Pilus, replaced Alwin.
The second umpire of the game was Harpervinderjeet Singh. SMK St Johns, who will represent Kuala Lumpur in the Champions Schools tournament next week, play as KL Project in the league.
The spectator, Aleef Kamarulzaman, is a former St Johns pupil and acts as assistant coach. The coach is Kamarulzaman Mohamed, who is also a KLHA umpire.
Aleef was punched by Alwin on the right side of his face which swelled, and there was a slight cut just below his right eye. Aleef was sitting at the spectator stand when Alwin suddenly summoned him to come down to the pitch during the game. There was shoving between the two before Alwin threw the punch.
“How can an umpire behave in such a manner? Look at my eye and look at him. I didn’t even touch him. If I want to, I can even lodge a police report against him because this is not a small matter,” said an enraged Aleef.
Other officials, bystanders and several players from both sides quickly moved in to separate the two.
A player from the opposing team said: “The match was going on as usual when the umpire suddenly got distracted and got involved in a skirmish with the other party before punching him in the eye.”
Kepong Baru manager Siva Raj said KLHA should take stern measures to ensure such incidents are not repeated.
“This is totally against the umpire’s code of conduct. I have never seen anything like this before. As umpires, they are supposed to lead by example. They cannot act like that, even if there had been provocation,” said Siva.
Another official said umpires are verbally abused all the time and as such should be totally oblivious to the surroundings except for the match proceedings.
“If the other party had been provoking him, the umpire should have brought it to the attention of the technical table. Now the name of umpires has been tarnished,” he said.
Alwin is a Class 3 umpire who is due to be upgraded during next week’s Champions Schools tournament.
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/9386-fist-fury
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