File photo of Sarawak players with SBA officials before the team left for this year’s Sukma in May. SBA failed to achieve its already modest target of one medal. In fact, Sarawak have not won any medal in badminton since the 2008 Sukma.
KUCHING: Following yesterday’s story (‘SBA Shocker – 100PLUS minus Sarawak’) on the state team missing out on next week’s national age-group championships, criticism of the Sarawak Badminton Association (SBA) have widened to other issues.
The Borneo Post reported yesterday that SBA had taken the unprecedented step not to register for the 100PLUS National Inter-State Team U-12 and U15 Championships.
To date, there remains no official word from the SBA to the players, their parents or clubs concerning the decision and the reason behind it.
Not only was there no attempt to inform the interested parties. One such party told The Borneo Post that they could have tried to raise funds or self-finance the expenses so that their young charges could get the chance to compete in Alor Setar from Dec 16-20. That is if the SBA bothered to inform them and, better still, informed them earlier.
Other questions have been raised concerning SBA’s modus operandi.
It has been reported that there is a team representing Sarawak which is currently in Labuan for the badminton competition of the 8th BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games. But there are state players and their coaches who wonder why they have no knowledge of any criteria or trials held to select a proper state team?
Paradoxically, another contingent of about 20 players and coaches from Kuching, Sibu and Miri are currently in Kota Kinabalu to compete in the Sabah Open. They went on their own initiative and are paying out of their own pockets.
There is sufficient evidence to suggest that Sarawak’s performance in badminton has been sliding in recent years. At the senior level, the state team have returned without a medal from the last four editions of Sukma in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Sarawak age-group players (U12, U14, U16 & U18) clash with their Sabah counterparts every year in the zonal leg of the National Age-Group Circuit. In 2012, Sarawak youngsters took 10 titles to Sabah’s 6. Last year, Sabah closed the gap to win 7 to Sarawak’s 9. This year, Sabah players smashed their way to 13 titles leaving their neighbour with only 3.
Meanwhile, SBA are occupied with hosting the upcoming Yonex-Sunrise Malaysia Grand Prix Gold to be held in Kuching from Jan 13-18 next year. Last month, the association hosted the Maybank Kuching International Challenge.
No Sarawak player qualify to play in both international tournaments.