Expand to excel

BAM target bigger pool of players after recent poor results

KUALA LUMPUR: The national badminton team will be expanded.

This comes in the wake of the national team’s disappointing results in the World Championships and Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

At the world meet in Glasgow, Scotland, none of the Malaysians got past the third round.

Lee Chong Wei, 34, crashed out in the men’s singles first round while Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong were knocked out in the men’s doubles second round.

At the KL Games, Malaysia had a 1-5-2 medal haul to finish third behind Thailand and Indonesia.

The only gold came when youngster Goh Jin Wei defeated Soniia Cheah in the all-Malaysian women’s singles final.

Malaysia lost the men and women’s team finals while Teo Ee Yi-Ong Yew Sin (men’s doubles) and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie ( mixed doubles) fell short in the title showdowns.

And that got Badminton Association of Malaysia ( BAM) president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria thinking about the lack of depth in the squad and the mentality of the players.

“We divided our team and send them to two major tournaments, but the outcome showed that we still lack depth in our national team,” said Norza.

“I’m disappointed. All the fans turned up hoping for something at the KL Games badminton finals but we only delivered one gold from three finals.

“I didn’t see the same kind of determination and fire in our players like what I saw in the Thais and Indonesians.

“When the Indonesian women’s team lost, they wept openly. Some of our under-achievers did not even show remorse.

“Our main struggle is still in men’s singles.”

Norza said that he would meet up with technical director Morten Frost and all the head coaches – Datuk Misbun Sidek (men’s singles), Cheah Soon Kit (men’s doubles), Tey Seu Bock (women’s singles), Wong Pei Tty (women’s doubles) and Chin Eei Hui (mixed doubles) – in a bid to crack the whip.

“We need to expand the national team and add more quality players in the set-up. I will also get Morten to look into ways to improve the mentality of our players,” he said.

“The recent world meet also showed how far behind the others have left us. Countries like Japan and India have not only caught up but overtaken us.

“It’s a matter of pride. We have to change in order to regain our reputation as one of the best in the world.”

At the world meet, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen (men’s singles), Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara (women’s singles), China’s Liu ChengZhang Nan (men’s doubles) and Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan (women’s doubles) were first- time winners while Tontowi Ahmad- Lilyana Natsir of Indonesia (mixed doubles) won it a second time.

Norza admitted that BAM needed to act fast.

“All this talk is useless if there’s no action. We can’t be doing the same thing and expect different results.

“I’ve been the president since April – that’s like four months ago. I will make the necessary changes,” vowed the 51-yearold Norza.