
Herry: 'We can accept defeat but this is not the way'
KUALA LUMPUR: A livid Herry IP said the umpire made such a bad call at the Malaysia Masters on Thursday that he will ask the BA of Malaysia (BAM) to make an official complaint to the world body, BWF.
The national men's doubles head coach was left frustrasted by the umpire's handling of the second round match between Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing and Denmark's Rasmus Kjaer-Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard at the Axiata Arena.
"We can accept defeat but this is not the way," said Herry,
A smash in the third game by Kjaer was adjudged by Swiss umpire Peter Meszaros to have hit Aaron before landing wide when the score was at 14-12 — much to the shock of the Malaysian pair.
This ultimately led to a sad ending for Aaroni-Khai Xing as the controversal call affected them mentally. Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard then pulled away to 15-12 and eventually won 21-10, 24-26, 21-16 to reach the last eight.
Herry, who with his assistant, Muhammad Miftakh, rushed to Meszaros to protest, claimed that this was the third time the umpire had made a bad call against Aaron-Khai Xing.
"Winning and losing is normal, but the umpire has been unfair. We didn't have 'the challenge' (a competition avenue previously allowed) anymore and if there was, we would have called for a review," said a frustrated Herry.
"I got up and told the umpire 'you are not fair' because you did it three times.
"The first one was out, it was called in while the second was in and was called out. But the third one, the umpire said the shuttle hit Aaron. We have viewed the video replay and the shuttle didn't touch him because he avoided the shot.
"If the call was correct, it could have been a different result. At that point, our boys were trailing 14-12 and it could have become 14-13 and everything to play for.
"Aaron-Khai Xing became very emotional and could not play well after that. They are young players and their emotions and mental strength can be easily shaken up by such incidents. Their rhythm was disrupted not once but three times.
"I will ask BAM to make an official report to BWF about the wrong judgement and improve the quality of umpiring in future."
Herry hoped that Aaron-Khai Xing would not be discouraged by the incident. "Sometimes, things like this affect young players' emotions and we do not know if they can recover fast or take longer to come out of the disappointment."

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