Left: World no. 4 Srikanth Kidambi of India. Right: World no. 9 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Badminton Association (SBA) will soon organise the much awaited dialogue as requested by some of its coaches and parents of players after all association top brass are back from their festive holidays.
This was announced by SBA’s honorary secretary Abdul Hadi Abdul Kadir through a press statement issued to the local media yesterday.
“As promised, we will organise the dialogue as soon as all of our exco members are back from their festive holidays and we do hope those parties concerned to be patient while waiting for the confirmed date and venue,” he said.
He expressed disappointment for not being able to organise the dialogue soonest as possible because like any other parents, most of SBA’s top brass including himself have taken the opportunity of the school holidays to fulfill family travel commitments.
He, however, expressed disappointment that the disgruntled parties who have again and again chosen to voice out their frustration through the media particularly on the national age-group competition which Sarawak is not competing.
Hadi pointed out that SBA is still defending its stance in prioritising the events it is organising to fit its financial resources including promoting Sarawak as hosts for prestigious international badminton championships.
According to him, SBA was entrusted by Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to host two major world class events namely the recent Maybank Malaysia Kuching International Challenge in November and next year’s Yonex Sunrise Malaysia Grand Prix Gold from Jan 13-18.
“The basis of bringing the two international level competitions to Sarawak is to give exposure to our state in playing host and to expose local players to higher level tournaments,” he explained.
Through SBA’s efforts, Sarawak is now on the world’s badminton map and has earned recognition from Badminton World Federation (BWF) – the world badminton governing body and Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC).
“SBA still defends the need to host international events from time to time in order to bring big names to our door steps.
Keen players and the public at large should be happy to see these world class players in action at their own backyard,” Hadi said.
He added that SBA is working out strategies to strengthen its financial position and it would like to get the support from its members while addressing the present shortcomings which had caused unnecessary discomfort among the affected parties.
“SBA would like to apologise for the shortcomings and we will take serious steps to mitigate the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s number one shuttler Tommy Sugiarto is among the world’s top 10 players who will be competing in next year’s Yonex Sunrise Malaysia Grand Prix Gold to be held at State Indoor Stadium in Petra Jaya.
Tommy is currently ranked World No. 9 and he will be joined by India’s top shuttler Srikanth Kidambi who is World No. 4.
Kidambi is this year’s China Open Super Series Premier champion after he upset reigning Olympic champion Lin Dan from China.
This year’s Maybank Malaysia Kuching International Challenge champion Lee Hyun Il from South Korea, top players from Indonesia Simon Santoso and Sonny Dwi Kunchoro will also be competing in the six-day event.