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Let The Malaysian Sports Council Have A Comprehensive Review Of The Country's Badminton, Malaysian Badminton Association And The True Reasons For Malaysia's Failure In The Thomas Cup Competition Statement by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong on the future of the Malaysian badminton after the May 20, 2000 Thomas Cup Final at the best South East Asian Indoor Stadium for badminton In Kuala Lumpur on 24 May 2000. | |||||||
| Just as Malaysia have the resources to be a developed nation, we have the ability to do well in world badminton. We did win Thomas cup, which is the most coveted team championship in the world. There were so much media hype about the Malaysian chances of regaining the cup. The public and private sectors poured in the money. We were successful in holding the competition which ended on 20 May 2000. But, it showed the glaring weaknesses of the Malaysian team. We failed. We must find out why. Why did we win once and lost twice in the preliminary rounds, being unable to reach the semifinal of the Thomas Cup championship? This makes us hark back to the rosy pictures painted before the 1997 economic crisis. Alas, we were clobbered by both the flaws in the international and domestic financial architecture. The rapacious foreign speculators and the innate weaknesses such as cronyism, nepotism, corruption, mismanagement and wastage contributed to the cirsis. In the late 40s and 50s last century, Malaya (including Singapore) won Thomas cup three times. In 1992, we regained the cup. Clearly, Malaysia can excel in world badminton. In the final, Indonesia showed its continued supremacy in badminton team event, beating China 3-0. China, Denmark, Indonesia and South Korea have world-class young players to take over from older ones. Malaysia do not have credible young players. We are between hay and grass.This is our biggest worry. It does not mean that we must win every tournament. We win some and lose some. That is most natural. Whatever the outcome, our players should try their utmost, fighting all the way. If they lack skills and go down fighting, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Something is terribly wrong with the management of Malaysian badminton. Every year, the Government allocates about RM300 million for the Youth and Sports Ministry, the National Sports Council getting RM5 | |
million. This does not include the hundreds of million of ringgits spent on sports facilities such as the National Sports Centre at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. The Government give financial assistance to the Malaysian Badminton Association, BAM, annually, hoping to obtain good results. We hope that the Government announce the amount of assistance to BAM, each state helping its association and private sponsorships in the past decade. These are vast sums. Although we have not done well in the Thomas Cup tournament, Malaysia still have a chance of winning a medal or two in the coming Sydney Olympics. BAM president Datuk Dr Fadzil Che Wan promised to resign in 1996 and 2000 respectively if Malaysia failed to win the cup. He has tendered his resignation. There were some others who were equally involved in the management. Let all previous Thomas Cup greats and coaches come out to discuss the ways to save Malaysian badminton and the strategy to regain it in the future. We can see many weaknesses in the national and state baminton management, the selection of players, the methods of training, the grassroots, the motivation, the discipline and the talents. We must eradicate these weaknesses such as the decisions on technical matters by those who did not understand the game, the selection, the training, the appointment of chief coach, the discipline and the attitude of players and their parents. An oak is not felled at one stroke. How can a non-technical person tell the chief coach what todo? Can a Malaysian badminton great not be the chief coach? Look at the Chinese, Indonesian, Danish and Korean chief coaches? We believe that the National Sports Council must present a comprehensive report on the state of Malaysian badminton, BAM and the failures in the Thomas and Uber Cups. Let us have a concrete plan to overcome all the mistakes. We can regain our place in the badminton world.
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