BAM to have clearer guidelines on selection of players for world meets

SUBANG JAYA: There was one consolation for professional doubles shuttlers Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen after going through the agony of being denied the chance to play in the world championships even though they had qualified on merit.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) finally agreed that they would look into clearer guidelines on the selection of professional or state players for international events.

In fact, they will come down hard on the states. The states will now have to filter their participant lists for international tournaments even before submitting them for approval from the BAM.

In the past, some players had represented Malaysia but they never made it past the early rounds in international events.

The BAM stood firm yesterday on their decision to replace Teik Chai-Bin Shen with Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How for the world championships scheduled for Aug 8-14 in London. Teik Chai-Bin Shen were the second Malaysian pair after Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong who qualified as the top 24.

But the BAM felt that Zakry-Thien How are the better bets on current form and have the potential to ruffle some feathers in the championships.

BAM secretary Ng Chin Chai said that the omission of Teik Chai-Bin Shen was not intended to discredit them.

“We made this decision without having any malice, prejudice or bias. But we agree that we sat on the matter too long and the last-minute decisions surprised everyone,” said Chin Chai.

“But this incident will expedite our efforts to have clearer guidelines on selection of non-BAM players for international events. We have discussed this with the state secretaries but now we will ensure that they are clearly spelt out.”

Without any written guidelines, the BAM’s team of Chin Chai, general manager Kenny Goh, high performance director Datuk James Selvaraja and two coaches Rexy Mainaky and Tan Kim Her decided on the eve of closing date of entries on Wednesday for the world championships to drop Teik Chai-Bin Shen in favour of Zakry-Thien How.

It drew strong reactions from Teik Chai-Bin Shen, who play under the banner of Apacs and KLRC.

On why the BAM did not hold a trial to determine the form of Teik Chai-Bin Shen, Zakry-Thien How and several other pairs of about the same standard, Chin Chai said: “It was partly my mistake.

“We had two weeks to decide on this matter but we waited too long to decide on this. We will continue to endorse their participation for international events.”

Chin Chai, however, said that a trial would not have made any difference because they felt strongly that Zakry-Thien How were the better candidates.

“The world ranking is not a true reflection of a player’s ability.

“It cannot be used as a criteria to select our best players,” said Chin Chai.

“The coaches input is important as they know best. And we also have past results to support the inclusion of Zakry-Thien How. They have beaten three top 15 pairs over the last six months.

“The BAM have the prerogative to name their best players for major events. We do not want to send anyone as mere passengers.

“We may be proven wrong with the selection of Zakry-Thien How but we believe in what we do. At the end of the day, we are answerable when our players represent Malaysia in major events.”

Posted by Lucas Liau on 12:02 PM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0