Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar: '(The women futsal team) were not intimidated by the Myanmar fans at all – and that is what I hope to see in all our athletes.'
KUALA LUMPUR: Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar may have just done the National Shooting Association of Malaysia (NSAM) a big favour.
Women rifle shooters Muslifah Zulkifli and Nur Ayuni Farhana Abdul Halim are irked with NSAM for labelling them as indisciplined and dropping them from the KL SEA Games squad.
Muslifah and Nur Ayuni were ready to take NSAM to court because of that.
Luckily, Tunku Imran played the role of troubleshooter after chairing OCM executive board meeting yesterday.
He said that it “wasn’t a good idea for them to take the association to court over the matter”.
“We (OCM) can’t step in or interfere in the sports associations’ affairs. But if athletes are unhappy with the selection process, they can approach us.”
“The shooters should not go to the media. Instead they should approach us so that we can help solve their problem in a fair process and they can have swift justice.
“They should not go to court to settle their problems because only the lawyers will make money.”
And it looks like Tunku Imran has managed to avert an ugly episode for NSAM.
Muslifah, when contacted, said that “we are not angry at being dropped from the SEA Games squad”.
“We are unhappy with NSAM for making a statement at a press conference last week saying we are indisciplined,” she said.
“We were thinking about taking NSAM to court.
“But now that Tunku Imran has said that they can help us settle the problem, we will heed his advice and approach OCM directly.”
OCM, according to Tunku Imran, are also looking at another case of “unfair” exclusion.
Praveen Nair Mathavan, the individual dressage gold medallist at the 2013 Myanmar Games, is also said to be unhappy at not being included in the equestrian team despite still training and competing in Europe.
The final date for selection and also entry by names for all individual sports and team sports is June 30.
“The National Sports Council (NSC) will then announce the target for each sport on July 7. The draw for the team sports will also be held on the same day,” said Tunku Imran.
