Upset with Malaysia’s disastrous outing in the recent World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland and the failure to achieve the two gold target in the 29th Sea Games in Kuala Lumpur, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria has called for immediate steps to remedy the situation.
The BAM supremo has instructed technical director Morten Frost and all coaches to come out with an immediate plan to check the slide
Speaking to the media after a postmortem meeting on the two tournaments Norza said Frost and the coaches need to come up with an “action plan” that will be discussed at next week’s C&T (coaching and training) meeting.
“Orders have been given out to identify the problems and provide the solutions. We’re not happy with the performances of the players. I have personally notified the coaches that not only BAM but the fans as well are concerned with their performances especially the men’s team.
“They have admitted their poor performance. However, I have advised them to bounce back from the disappointments and look upon their weaknesses that stood out in the World Championship and the SEA Games to rectify their mistakes,” said the 51-year-old Norza.
“We have major assignments ahead next year…such as the Commonwealth Games, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup and the Asian Games. It is clear that we are lagging and there’s a lot of work to be done and immediately too.
“I want all of the coaches to come out with an immediate plan to rectify the shortcomings so that it can be discussed in the coming C&T (next week).”
Meanwhile, it is reliably learnt that Malaysia’s number one men’s doubles pair Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong are not seeing “eye to eye” which is the root cause of the world No.5’s poor performance in tournaments.
Norza, however, said he has requested coaches – Jeremy Gan and Cheah Soon Kit – to “dig deep” before announcing the status of the partnership.
Frost had this to say: “I think we need to hear from both parties. It’s not a decision that we can take lightly. If the players don’t continue their partnership, it’s simply because we don’t feel that they can live up to our expectations and their own.
“If we do keep them together then that would mean we still believe in them. It takes two to tango and if they agree on it and move forward then they can produce. We will do whatever is right for BAM,” added Frost.BY ALVIN OH KAI ZHEN
