Training in the dark not our strategy, says coach Misbun

KUALA LUMPUR: For three days now, the shuttlers and their coaches have to work in a half-lit Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara.

And singles coach Misbun Sidek is getting restless. He wants the faulty lighting system to be repaired immediately and everything else to be in order as far as the facilities are concerned for his players to prepare for the World Championships without any hiccups.

The World Championships will be held in Hyderabad from Aug 10-16.

One could sense the sarcasm in his voice when Misbun said yesterday that was certainly not Malaysia’s strategy to train in the dark.

“We encountered the problem on Friday and Saturday and we thought that the matter would be fixed but it was the same situation today,” he said.

“I am unhappy with this but I have accepted that it was beyond our control and the players have continued with training without complaints.

“But if this prolongs, I will not be able to maximise the time I have with the players in training. In fact, for now, I cannot conduct matchplay because of poor visibility. I have to focus only on working on the skills.”

Only one part of the stadium is brightly lit and it has also disrupted the training schedules of all the other departments in the training centre.

“Rexy (Mainaky, the doubles chief coach) has to wait for the singles players to finish training before he begins his session. So far, we have to make do with the situation but this is not proper, especially in a national training centre,” said Misbun.

The BAM general manager, Kenny Goh, said that work was taking place to restore order at the training centre.

“Most of the lights are not functioning. We were told that there were problems with the cables.

“The management of the stadium are looking into the matter and it should be okay in a few days,” he said.

Kenny added that they would be ready with a back-up plan if the problem persisted.

“We will look at another place for the players to train if the situation remains the same,” he said.

Kenny, however, hoped that the lights will be fixed soon, especially when the BAM are staging the Asian Junior Championships at the stadium, beginning on Sunday.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 10:27 AM. Filed under Lee Chong Wei, Misbun Sidek, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0