Lifting lid on drama, intrigues within Malkia Strikers

Shocking details have emerged from the decision by the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) to part ways with Shailen Ramdoo and the subsequent appointment of Paul Bitok as stand-in coach of the national women volleyball team, Malkia Strikers.

On Thursday, KVF announced that Bitok was going to take over as head coach in a caretaker capacity following the expiry of Ramdoo’s contract at the end of July. Ramdoo was seconded to Kenya by volleyball’s world governing body, the FIVB, in May.

“How long he (Bitok) remains with the team will depend on how he performs in (the African Games in) Morocco,” said KVF president Waithaka Kioni regarding Bitok’s terms.

But why the sudden change of heart from the federation towards a man who just a month ago was largely praised in local volleyball circles for his tactical acumen even prompting the federation to write to FIVB seeking an extension of his stay in Kenya for one year?

The drastic change at the helm of the national team has raised concerns given Ramdoo’s decent performance at the Africa Nations Championship in Cairo last month where Kenya finished second after losing 3-2 to Cameroon in the final.

In both games against Cameroon, Ramdoo’s tactics came to the fore after his raft of changes saw the Malkia Strikers rally from two sets down to beat the Lionesses 3-2 in the pool before losing by a similar margin in the final.

However according to Kioni, the entire playing unit complained about how Ramdoo was running the affairs of the team. They had seen enough of the Italian and wanted him out after the Inter-Continental Olympic qualification tournament that ended last Sunday in Catania, Italy.

Kenya lost all its group ‘F’ matches after going down to hosts Italy, Netherlands and Belgium.

“The players requested to meet me on Wednesday after landing from Italy. I had a meeting with them and one by one, they expressed their displeasure at how Ramdoo was handling the team. They even threatened not to travel to Morocco (for the African Games) if Ramdoo remains the coach,” Kioni told Nation Sport on Saturday.

“I took up the matter with the National Executive Committee (NEC) via our WhatsApp group and a unanimous decision was made to drop Ramdoo and appoint Bitok for the time being.

“I communicated the decision to Ramdoo via e-mail clearly citing his unhealthy relationship between him and the players/coaches as the reason for his dismissal,” reiterated Kioni.

Kioni’s sentiments were echoed by captain Mercy Moim and her assistant Noel Murambi, who described Ramdoo as “abusive and divisive”.

“We could hardly express ourselves on the court because he could throw words at you and not give you a chance to correct your mistakes. If you made a slight mistake he would go ahead to substitute you and this really affected us. Volleyball is a team sport so if one player is affected then the whole team cannot function,” said Moim.

“Such erratic decisions affected our game plan since when we really needed to make a substitution we couldn’t, we had already exhausted them. All of us make mistakes but the language the coach used to correct us was not right. It was more of scolding and very abusive,” added Moim.

“He would also go behind your back to discuss you with another player and tell her about your faults. Yet when he approached you he would tell you that you were doing okay in training. This really created a lot of division in the team,” offered Murambi.

Speaking to Nation Sport from his base in Finland, Ramdoo insists that a plot - orchestrated by some members of the technical bench and executed by a section of players - was hatched to oust him after it became apparent in June that his stay in Kenya was going to be extended by FIVB.

“This team was progressing every day so there was no clear idea of the first six or seven. I tried to push some of these senior players in training but most of them feel so entitled about being in the team.

“There were big issues installed for years in the team by former coach Demosh (David Lung’aho) whereby senior players held on to power in the team and stopped the progress of younger players,” began Ramdoo in his defence.

“I have been a coach for more than 30 years at high level and it’s wrong for people to soil my reputation so that they can have their way. It’s also wrong for coaches to use players to keep their spots in the team. I have no problem being replaced but not in such a manner,” continued Ramdoo, a senior FIVB coaching instructor.

“I did not come to Kenya because of money. There are many other FIVB projects that I could have taken charge of and earn twice as much. I came here because I was interested in leading Kenya to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It’s possible to achieve it but not with such an environment where people are working so hard behind your back to bring you down,” he underlined.

Trouble started in Cairo, where Ramdoo - in his first assignment as head coach - allegedly accosted one of his technical bench members Shota Katagiri publicly at the team’s hotel during lunch.

From then on Ramdoo’s relationship with Lung’aho, who was the team manager during that trip, nosedived and full blown sabotage set in.