Top Malaysian players likely to play in select matches of Axiata Cup
The spectator’s thirst will surely not be filled in Axiata Cup as the top Malaysian players are likely to play only in selected matches.
The Malaysians are in preparations for the Thomas Cup finals and the London Olympics and some of them are also scheduled to show case their prime skills in back to back German Open, All England Open and Swiss Open.
That was the reason only which forced the national singles coach Tey Seu Bock to make a decision of saving his prime shuttlers’ energies by performing just in selected matches of Axiata Cup.
The coach disclosed the strategy that the skipper Lee Chong Wei will only grace the court against strong contenders as he has a series of events coming in next weeks.
Seu Bock said, “The tournament will be held during our preparation for the Thomas Cup Finals while the India Open Super Series will be held 10 days after the Axiata Cup final. Chong Wei will play but in selected matches where the opposition have a strong first
singles.”
The event will be staged in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta over three weekends. The six contesting nations include Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has announced to send two teams in the event while Indonesia is also coming with two teams for the event.
BAM has named A team made up of World Number one Lee Chong Wei, Hafiz Hashim, Arif Latif, Daren Liew in singles event while Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and Goh V Shem-Lim Khim Wah will represent the country in doubles event.
However, it is already decided that all the seniors will contest after seeing their opponents. It seems the coach Seu Bock has evaluated his shuttlers and the other teams as he named all the strong contenders from opponent countries.
He said, “Indonesia will have Taufik Hidayat as their top singles while Nguyen Tien Minh (Vietnam) is also a good player and Boonsak (Ponsana) is also experienced and Chong Wei may be needed if we face any of these three teams (Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand).”
BAM has formed a B team also made up of young and emerging players like Zulfadli Zulkifli but the Malaysian A team has been tagged favourites in the Axiata Cup team event which offers a mouth watering prize money of one million US dollars.
The main round will be staged from March 23-25 while semi-finals are going to be held from March 31- April 2. The finals will be held from April 13-15.
Tags: