It’s not smashing for badminton
AS we have just witnessed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, Malaysia has been overtaken by the likes of India and England in the overall medals tally for badminton. Add to that our collective failings in recent competitions, such as the prestigious All England, and looking at the BWF ranking of our players, we are in grave danger of losing our dominance in a sport that we have traditionally reigned supreme (if it has not already happened).
Datuk Lee Chong Wei is 35. There is just no one good enough to replace him. Our reigning Olympic silver medallists Goh V.S.-Tan V.K. and Chan P.S.-Goh L.Y. are either perpetually off form or perennially injured. Who are their replacements that we can consistently depend on?
I know the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has tried a couple of approaches to stop the rot. Appointing Morten Frost to the national set-up was one, but it has ended in acrimony due to disputes between him and players.
Another approach was assigning individual coaches to head the respective departments (singles/ doubles) but this has not yielded the desired result either.
Yet we see former coaches like Wong Tat Meng and Tan Kim Her doing wonders for their current employers, Scotland and India respectively. One wonders what exactly needs to be done for Malaysia to be feared in the international arena once more.
The Thomas and Uber Cup competitions are around the corner while the next Olympics is only two years away.
The current president of BAM, Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria, is rightly incensed with the state of Malaysian badminton, having issued a three-month ulti- matum recently for players and coaches to buck up.
I personally feel the main problem is a dearth in talent in the existing team. Our juniors are simply not up to the mark while the seniors are not really setting a great example themselves, are they?
It is time we get our head out of the sand and look around us, especially at neighbouring countries Thailand, India and Indonesia to see what they have been doing right. Thailand has abundant ladies singles and doubles challengers. India is improving by leaps and bounds in all departments, especially in the men’s and ladies’ singles. Indonesia has an impressive array of young singles and doubles players. If we can’t overcome these emerging countries, then let’s not even contemplate challenging current powerhouses China, Japan and Denmark.
It takes time to develop talent to be world beaters. I fear time is running out as we are already playing catch-up.
Our juniors are simply not up to the mark while the seniors are not setting a great example.
JEREMY CHEE Kuching