Bowls: Game must heal wounds

Jamie Hill. Photo / Dean Purcell

Bowls New Zealand CEO Kerry Clark says international bowlers Gary Lawson and Jamie Hill resigned from the high performance squad last year - and that there will have to be a "healing process" when the whole "match-fixing" controversy finally dies down.

Clark was making a spirited defence on a whole raft of issues thrown up by the incident when Lawson, Hill, Shannon McIlroy and Shayne Sincock were found to have deliberately lost the 17th end of an 18-end fours match against Thailand in the Asia-Pacific Games in Malaysia in August last year.

The loss of the end, said to have been aimed at avoiding Australia in the playoffs, meant Canada missed out on a playoff spot and a complaint was laid.

A judicial panel found the four guilty but their fate is still awaited as the District Court judge presiding will be on holiday until next month. In the meantime, much of the match-fixing saga has been played out in public. Lawson has accused Clark of following a personal "vendetta" against him.

The prolonged time frame has led to poor publicity for bowls - and criticism of Clark which he says is largely that of political opponents taking advantage of the opportunity.

It is not known whether the four will be banned from international play or made ineligible for the Delhi Commonwealth Games but Clark pointed out that Lawson and Hill had resigned from Bowls NZ's high performance squad anyway in September last year.

Asked if that had been as a result of the "match-fixing" incident, Clark said he thought it could well pertain to the August incident but he could not answer for Lawson or Hill. The current squad is disbanded in April and a new one then chosen - for which both bowlers would theoretically be eligible.

Clark took the opportunity to answer criticism made of him and to make the point that bowls would have to go through a healing process no matter what penalty, if any, is exacted upon the bowlers.

"We will have to bring people together, I believe, and there will have to be a healing process. It is not just the four involved, it also involves the team coach [Dave Edwards] and there may be other high performance bowlers who do not agree with what the four have done. We have to sort that out."

On other issues raised in the Herald on Sunday last week by former international greats such as Peter Belliss, Rowan Brassey, Danny O'Connor and former Bowls NZ chairman Terry O'Connor, Clark made the following comments:

That the format of tournaments encouraged bowlers to jockey for position in playoffs: "World Bowls is addressing the issue at a meeting next month. There are recommendations around, like winners of section play automatically qualifying for the semifinals."

That bowlers lose ends and matches "all the time" to give themselves a better chance in playoffs: "Some may call me naive but I am not aware of it. If it is happening all the time, we do not want it to.

"We have specifically changed our code of conduct to address that issue and the players are aware of that and of the fact that players can be removed if they breach that code of conduct."

That the matter has not been handled professionally and compared poorly to the succinct and in-house handling of a similar incident (also involving Lawson) at the World Bowls in 2008 in Christchurch: "You can't compare the two. In 2008, hundreds of people saw the New Zealand bowlers fire all but one of their bowls into the ditch and the skip then picked up the last bowl against Ireland and walked up the head with it. There could be no defence of that [the four denied deliberately losing in Malaysia]. That was a World Bowls matter and it was handled on the day - and they chose not to make it public nor put out a press release when the players and Bowls NZ were severely reprimanded. If an organisation has policies and procedures that have to be followed, then you have to follow them professionally. My job is not a popularity contest."

That he [Clark] had lost contact with the grassroots of the game: "I have been an agent of change in bowls and still am. Some people don't like that. I have been here 13 years and if I was just sitting here being an administrator, it would be time to go. We have initiatives, activities and people like community development officers in place to build strong, sustainable clubs and we work closely with grassroots."

That former chairman Terry O'Connor did not get an acknowledgement of his application to the board: "He did. We have the emails."

That Bowls NZ had lost money in investments: "We have $50,000 with Dorchester and $500,000 with Tower Managed Funds."

Both companies were under management and were repaying the investments. Clark said Bowls NZ expected to get back its original investment with Dorchester and principal plus interest from Tower.

That bowls was losing membership numbers. Overall numbers were down 2.9 per cent but casual bowlers were up over 15 per cent.

The sport is facing similar issues to golf, where fewer people are paying subs and casual numbers have increased - and Clark has been working on the problem.

That fewer big tournaments were played in NZ now: "It was easy back in the 1980s and '90s, like the 1988 World Bowls, where TV paid us to televise it. Sponsors were easier then, too. For World Bowls 2008, we had to pay $100,000 for TV to televise it and the ratings did not come up to expectations."

That Sparc should re-appraise bowls administration as has happened with rugby league: "Sparc have assessed 12 national sporting organisations so far on issues like management and governance. Bowls NZ heads that list at present."

That bowlers like Bellis, Brassey and others had been overlooked because of their age and that selectors were picking younger, more athletic bowlers rather than looking for experience and results: "I have not been a selector since 1992. There is no age policy. Brassey resigned and said he'd finished with international bowls. Belliss went to Australia in the 1990s. What I can say is that some players wanted more money for playing for New Zealand than was available at the time."

That the high performance programme included people who knew little about bowls: "Their function is to put programmes in place to help lift the bowlers' level of skill and performance. You don't have to be a good bowler to do that; you have to be a good high performance person. Since we have had our high performance programme, New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia have become the top three countries in the world.

"Previously it was England and Scotland. They are now investigating high performance schemes like ours. I rest my case."That he is autocratic and inflexible: "I don't think so but I guess you are always in the firing line."