Amended rating system awaits approval

THE rating system for national associations has been amended with newscores and is now awaiting approval from Sports Minister Datuk SeriIsmail Sabri Yaakob. The amended rating system was submitted to Ismail, who had earliercalled for improvements, last week. Ismail had expressed dissatisfaction with the earlier rating system ashe felt it was flawed as certain associations which had not beendelivering obtained high marks while those who have, received low scores. The rating system has many associations worried as how they performwill determine the amount of government funding they will receive infuture. "We have submitted the report with some changes. Instead of groupingthe scores, we have now given individual scores akin to a report card forthe associations," said Olympic Council of Malaysia deputy presidentDatuk Dr M. Jegathesan. The National Sports Council, the National Sports Institute and OCM weretasked with preparing the rating system. Earlier, the committee looked at three areas - governance, programmesand achievements - and the associations were asked to answer 124questions. The first 57 were on governance, 34 on programmes and 33 onachievements and 47 national associations were tasked with answering thequestions. Marks were given based on a total score and this irked someassociations who, despite having better track records, scored lower asthey did not "modify" their answers. Of the 47 associations, only three received five star ratings while 11received four stars. Of the three associations which got five stars, the SRA of Malaysia wasthe highest with 93.92 per cent for governance, 89.47 per cent forprogrammes and 100 per cent for achievements for a 93.52 total. The Sepak Takraw Association of Malaysia, which withdrew from the 2007Korat Sea Games over a dispute pertaining to the type of balls used,received 92.50 for governance, 93.24 for programmes and 87.90 forachievements for a 92.14 total while lawn bowls was awarded 90.10 forgovernance, 92.11 for programmes and 100 per cent for achievements for a91.81 total. What surprised many was bowling's failure to obtain a five-star rating,especially as the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) not only hasgood governance and development programmes, it has a large pool ofbowlers who consistently win honours on the international stage. Jegathesan said the rating system is now fairer as individual scoreswere awarded. "We will leave it to the Sports Minister to decide which aspect will beused since funding is involved." Hopefully, there are no problems this time as the rating system wassupposed to have been in place in 2008.