Elyas Omar insists BAM President Nadzmi Salleh should resign after Thomas Cup failure
Former president of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Tan Sri Elyas Omar is in furious mood after shameful Thomas Cup outing and he demanded Datuk Seri Nadzmi Salleh to leave the highest chair of national body.
In 2012 edition of Thomas Cup Finals, Malaysia failed terribly and could not even surge into semi-final round.
This happened for the first time in Malaysian badminton history and it sparked a debate about the future of reigning managing team of BAM.
Elyas Omar, who was president of the association when Malaysia lifted trophy in 1992, targeted president Datuk Nadzmi for his poor administration and declared him responsible for this disgraceful decline.
He termed this failure most dishonourable incident and asked Nadzmi to resign in good interest of country’s future in badminton world.
He said, "The Thomas Cup debacle is the worst that has happened to Malaysia's 'maruah' (honour). Nadzmi should step down right now."
Malaysia has been struggling for couple of years to revive its status in the arena. The World Number one Men’s Singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei is the only national campaigner who has saved honour to some extent.
Apart from Chong Wei, no other shuttler could raise national flag at international level and Sri Elyas Omar believes that it’s fault of those who are sitting at helm of affairs.
He criticised management of BAM for not finding true successors of Chong Wei and stated that only proper leadership can steer country out of this bad patch.
He said, "Enough damage has been done to Malaysian badminton. BAM is lost in the wilderness as the leadership is weak. Badminton needs a leader to pull us out of this."
Malaysia touched new heights under supervision of Elyas Omar as they not only won many esteemed badminton events but also earned rights of hospitality for Commonwealth Games 1998.
He revealed the secret recipe of success and said, "When I was BAM president, I did all the thinking and strategising, all the efforts of financing, all the motivation of the players all by myself."
Meanwhile, former international Razif Sidek also supported Elyas’s point of view by saying that it is right time for Nadzmi to step down along with his team and hand over national body to new people.
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