EVEN before some of the players had returned from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has started rubbing the coaches up the wrong way.
Its president Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff has said “coaches are like teachers. If a teacher cannot teach the student to reach his full potential, then it could be the fault of the teacher.”
His scathing remark prompted sidelined national men’s singles coach Rashid Sidek to respond: “This is the nature of sport. When we do well, someone else takes credit and hardly appreciates the coach. When things go wrong, it falls back on the coaches.”
BAM appears to have taken Rashid’s comments personally.
At midweek, when the Association held a management meeting with the coaching staff, Rashid was absent as “he was not informed about the meeting.”
The meeting decided to leave him out of the Malaysian team for the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, from Aug 25 to 31 and instead appoint singles coach Hendrawan to lead the team. Rashid is also excluded from BAM plans for the next four years, including the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
His cold-shoulder treatment followed Malaysia’s quarter-final exits in the men’s individual singles at the Games. But both the losers – Chong Wei Feng and Liew Daren – have leapt to Rashid’s defence, saying the coach should not be blamed for their poor showings in Glasgow.
Wei Feng feels it’s unfair for BAM to solely blame Rashid.
“We’re responsible for the failure. Rashid should not be blamed,” he said.
Saddened Rashid has been scapegoated, Daren said: “We should shoulder part of the blame rather than blaming everything on the coach. After all, we were the ones who played at the Games.”
Former national player Datuk James Selvaraj was not mincing words when he said “don’t blame the coaches if the players are not doing well.”
“I don’t see the rationale for BAM to blame Rashid over the selection of (Liew) Daren. A coach’s job is to recommend a player he feels would do the job.
“If BAM felt Daren has been underperforming, then they should have rectified it. Why send Daren, and then blame Rashid when he did not perform? The association which authorised the proposal must take the responsibility,” James, a former BAM high performance director, was quoted saying.
Lee Wan Wah, a 1998 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, was equally emphatic: “Everyone from the president to the players must take responsibility when the performance of the team is poor.”
Amidst the controversy, we should not lose sight of one crucial point – our men’s singles backup pool looks worryingly empty.
Like it or not, we are now staring at the stark reality of sliding down the rankings – from traditionally serious contender to second, if not third, rater in this particular category.
Finding another Lee Chong Wei or even an immediate replacement for the world No 1 remains a pipe dream. It will not happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or even next decade.
And given the unmistakable gaps between the top two – Chong Wei and Wei Feng – and the No. 2 (Wei Feng) and the rest, whither badminton in Malaysia when both of them retire?
There is a colossal generational gap to bridge – a prodigious feat by any standard unless a Nicol David of badminton pops up soon which, of course, is mere day-dreaming, considering the parlous state of badminton in the country.
Lee Chong Wei has said instead of chastising the coaches when the players flopped, the focus now should be on seeking solutions to improve and move ahead.
But before this can happen, regressive politicking within the parent body must first be binned. Also, the desire to improve and succeed must be firmly inculcated in the badminton fraternity with BAM taking the lead and, more importantly, leading by example.
There are no two ways about it if we want to bring back the glory days of badminton to Malaysia.
In rugby, while it may be harsh to call the Sevens team the ‘turkey’ of the Malaysian contingent, there’s perhaps merit to the description, given the team’s disastrous results: 0-52 loss to Wales; 7-36 to Papua New Guinea and 0-54 to Samoa in group matches.
In the playoffs for 13 to 16 placing, the team was trashed 35-0 by Uganda and beaten 15-10 by Trinidad and Tobago to finish last among the 16 teams.
It’s the third consecutive time Malaysia has finished last in the Games.
The reason the Rugby Sevens team was in Glasgow was that hosts Scotland gave Malaysia 216 free flight tickets. But isn’t it time we stop sending teams to international competitions just to make up the numbers.
While thanking the hosts for their generous gesture, the onus is on us to ensure we do not send teams to the Commonwealth Games or other international meets to suffer the humiliation of one drubbing after another in a sport, such as rugby in this instance, where it’s not
an overstatement to say our standard is not very far above school level.
We must remember the image of the country is at stake here.