James Selvaraj recalls his playing days and the 1974 All England Open at Wembley Arena
The famous Wembley Indoor Arena has treasured a number of sweet memories for numerous shuttlers in the game. Among these players is James Selvaraj, who is currently positioned as the high performance director of the Badminton Association of Malaysia.
James is staying with the Malaysian national squad at the Wembley Plaza Hotel, which is situated at a walking distance to the Wembley Indoor Arena, the venue for the 2011 World Championships. James also used to stay in the same hotel when he was a national
shuttler of Malaysia.
While talking about his past memories of his participation in the All England event, James said, “I cannot believe that I am staying in the same old hotel when I played in the All-England at Wembley from 1973-1982. The only thing that has changed is its
name.”
The high performance director also expressed that he has been recalling his own playing days at Wembley Arena since his arrival in London this time. He used to play in the days of the great Rudy Hartono of Indonesia and Punch Gunalan of Malaysia, who were
the two most talented and famous players of their era.
While talking about his travel from the station to the hotel for participating in the 1974 All England Open Championships, James said, “I remember that it took us 20 minutes to drag all our bags and sports equipment from the train station to the hotel. That
itself was a good warm-up.”
He also commented on the final of All England 1974 tournament by saying, “I remember the 1974 All-England final here between Punch Gunalan and Rudy Hartono. Punch was on the brink of victory at 14-9 in the second game but he just could not finish it off.
Rudy came back to nick it.”
Now, James is enjoying his past memories by staying in the same hotel with the whole Malaysian national squad that have come to participate at the 2011 World Championships, which is set to begin from August 8, in London.
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