Former BAM president dread the future of badminton in Malaysia after Thomas Cup failure
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) came in the line of fire after national squad’s failure in 2012 Thomas Cup Finals and association’s former president Tan Sri Elyas Omar declared it bad omen for country’s future in badminton world.
Five-time champion Malaysia could not even make into semi-finals this year and bid farewell after facing 3-0 defeat against China in quarter-finals.
They won Thomas Cup trophy last time in 1992 and Elyas Omar was president at that time. He stated that central body is responsible for this decline as they have not done anything to restore country’s status in the arena.
The 75-year old Elyas declared that recent shameful Thomas Cup outing has exposed their failure in sustaining country’s pride at international level.
He said, “It’s just so disappointing to see how low we have fallen as a badminton nation despite our 1992 success. In fact, the recent Thomas Cup results were humiliating.”
Moreover, he also criticised those officials who marked 2012 London Olympics more important than the prestigious team event.
Former sports commissioner expressed that teams only get tested in Thomas Cup as Olympic events are more like individual tournaments where no one is bothered with other shuttlers’ performance.
He said, “Olympics are nothing more than personal glory, the Thomas Cup is a team event between countries where our nation’s pride is at stake.”
Earlier, the badminton critics demanded structural revamp in BAM after long streak of failures but national body refused to do any changes in current setup before the London Games.
Now, Elyas Omar has raised his voice against present governing body and strongly recommended an overhaul in its composition as it has been failing to produce good results for last 10 years.
He even offered his services to change bitter past into better future and showed willingness to work as advisor in special programme of 2016 Thomas Cup.
He said, “I am ready to share my experience as an advisor or a consultant for the building of a new squad for the 2016 Thomas Cup.”
He did not spare coaching and training committee and targeted them for their incompetency in handling respected foreign coaches like Rexy Mainaky and Yoo Yong Sung. He alarmed that this unruffled attitude may put young shuttlers’ future in danger.
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