‘This too shall pass,’ Chong Wei consoles players
“THIS too shall pass.”
These were the words of hope and encouragement from former World No 1 Lee Chong Wei after learning about the postponement of the World Tour’s Asian leg to January.
On Friday, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced that it was no longer viable to host three events in Bangkok in November due to Covid-19 concerns.
Instead, the 2020 season will end in January with the BWF World Tour Finals.
Chong Wei said: “The BWF have come under tremendous pressure. Even I was not happy when they wanted to go on with the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals.
“However, postponing the Asian leg to next year is the right thing to do. Either way, the BWF have to make tough decisions for the sport.
“My advice is to stay strong. We have three more months to see how we can have a much better start to the new season.
“I understand that players are starting to get anxious. When I was playing, even being on the sidelines for two months was tough.
“But what can we do? Are we going to sit around, complain and not do anything?
“As tough as it is, players need to push themselves to the limit. Use this period to see how much a year can do before you start fresh,” said the retired shuttler yesterday.
While most major sports around the world have resumed over the last couple of months, BWF have not been able to kick start the season since suspending it in March.
Initially, international badminton was slated for resumption with the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Denmark on Oct 311, followed by the Denmark Open on Oct 13-18 and the Denmark Masters on Oct 2025.
But with many still afraid to travel abroad, the BWF were forced to postpone the Thomas and Uber Cups to next year. The world body have also called off the Denmark Masters, continuing only with the Denmark Open.
Foreign media was abuzz with what seemed like an Asian snub of the European leg of the World Tour, but all that was put to bed when the world body announced the postponement of the Asian leg on Friday.
“It’s tough to be in BWF’s shoes. They can’t please everybody.
“I feel they made the right call. Even if the Asian leg were to go ahead as planned in November, the Europeans might not be able to travel.
“Indian players might not come either. We don’t know what’s going to happen then.
“We have no choice but to stay calm and brave this pandemic. This too shall pass,” Chong Wei added.