Our Man In Birmingham: It's all over for Roslin NSTP emedia S.S. Dhaliwal Send to a friend | Printable Page ALTHOUGH one Malaysian felt the line judges had erred to such an extent it led to Roslin Hashim's defeat in the quarterfinals of the All-England at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, the shuttler did not feel so. After losing his match to Peter Gade of Denmark, screams of bias and unfair could be heard from Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman, the wife of former national doubles player Jalani Sidek. Raja Azmi even had the audacity to take Roslin to task for not being vocal enough on the court to register his protest to the umpire. The sad thing was several players of different countries witnessed the tantrum and Roslin was at a loss as to how to handle the situation. Raja Azmi even called on coach Misbun Sidek to register a formal protest saying these matters should not be left unattended as the players would suffer in the long run. The incident occurred when Roslin fought back from being 2-8 down in the rubber to draw level at 8-8. The Malaysian had lost the first game 4-15 but won the second 15-9. Roslin, who held serve, left the shuttle as he though it was going out but to his dismay the line judge, ruled it in. After that incident, Gade raced home to win 15-10 and ended Malaysia's interest in the singles competition. "That line call was not the reason of my defeat and it did not affect my concentration," said Roslin. "I played to the best of my ability and it was not my day. Everything went wrong for me and the better player won. "Even when I caught up at 8-8, I could not break his defence and paid the price for being too hasty." But while Roslin may not want to prolong the argument, the fact remained the call was dubious. In fact, the winning point for Gade was also a controversial one as Roslin left the shuttle assuming it was out but the line judge, to the astonishment of the crowd, pointed it in. The organisers of the All-England need to address the situation concerning line judges as it was not only Roslin who fell victim to their incompetence. And the world's oldest badminton tournament risks being called the Old England as a majority of the line judges are well advanced in their age. The Dane now meets Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat, the man he beat in the 1999 final to capture the All-England crown, in the semifinals. Taufik defeated China's Chen Yu 15-8, 15-8. Top seed Lin Dan of China, mweanwhile, continued his progress with a 15-10, 15-1 victory over Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia. His semifinal opponent is Singapore's Ronald Susilo, who beat 10th-seeded Dane Anders Boesen 15-9, 9-15, 15-9.
