Jais slams ‘immature’ Thailand after controversial World Cup final

KUALA LUMPUR: Ahmad Jais Baharun dubbed Thailand “immature and unprofessional” after they refused to continue playing in the third match of the team regu final at the TM Istaf Sepak Takraw World Cup on Saturday.

The national team head coach said Thailand had done a disservice to themselves as they were still very much in the running to win the set and push the match to a decider at the Titiwangsa Stadium.

“Thailand may have been unhappy with the umpire, however, the video replay clearly showed that their player’s leg had crossed over (into Malaysian side) under the net,” said Jais yesterday.

“You have to accept that the umpire’s decision is final, especially as there was a video reference.

“The umpire even gave them time to resume play, but they did not want to continue.

“Personally, I feel that they should have been more professional and continued to play.

“The match was still open and there was no guarantee that we would have gone on to become champions.

“They only did a disservice to themselves by not continuing.”

The final was tied at 1-1 going into the deciding match between Malaysia’s Zarif Marican Ibrahim Marican, Hafizul Hayazi Adnan and Amirul Zazwan Amir against Thailand’s Jakkrit Tinbangbon, Puthawan Sopa and Wichan Temkort.

Malaysia won the first set 15-3.

Tension came to a head when Thailand were leading 14-13 in the second set and struck what they thought to be the winning point but it was overruled by the umpire, Singaporean Radhi Che Mei, who ruled that a Thai player’s leg had crossed over into the Malaysian side under the net.

This enraged the Thais, who verbally protested against the decision without success.

Thailand then opted not to continue playing, though they did not leave the court and would later participate in the prize-giving ceremony.

Tournament officials subsequently ruled that Malaysia won the final match and thus won the final 2-1.

Thailand team manager Auychai Srisuwan claimed that the judging throughout the final was biased in favour of Malaysia.

“We had been losing three to four points in every game (due to biased judging) up to then. This was why we decided not to continue playing,” said Auychai.

Thailand had previously defeated Malaysia 2-1 in the team regu final during the 2024 World Cup, which was also held in Kuala Lumpur.

Jais admitted that the incident did take some of the shine off their win. However, he praised his players for their determination.

The national team also won the quadrant title earlier this week but failed to defend their inter-regu title after being stunned by Myanmar in the semi-finals.

“Personally, I am not satisfied to win it (team regu title) like this but we still have to give credit to our players,” said Jais.

“Our players trained very hard for this tournament and they fought with everything they had. They never gave up.

“Thus, they deserve to be celebrated for winning the quadrant and team event titles.”

Malaysia were missing star tekong Syahir Rosdi in the final, who is expected to be out for up to three months after suffering a knee tendon injury during Malaysia’s quarterfinal win over Japan on Friday.

Azlan Alias and Farhan Adam were paired with reserve tekong Haziq Nizam for the team regu final.

However, they lost tamely to Kritsanapong Nontakote, Tanaphon Sapyen and Wuttinun Kamsanor 15-6, 15-10 in the second match.

The national squad’s next big assignment will be the Thai King’s Cup in Bangkok on Aug 3-11 followed by the highly anticipated Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sept 19-Oct 4.

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

المصدر: New Straits Times