Here’s a piece of advice for Malaysian badminton fans, especially those who watch all the international championships with so much passion.
Just relax and enjoy the Thomas and Uber Cup finals to be played from April 24 to May 3. Do not, I repeat, do not have any high expectations.
Root for the nation, but don’t wear your heart on your sleeve.
Because both the men’s Thomas Cup and women’s Uber Cup teams are not going to go far. In fact, Malaysia are unlikely to go the distance in this biennial tournament and may return home early.
You may say I am cruel, but I am not a daydreamer. Let’s get real here.
Having covered all the Badminton World Federation tournaments this year, I will bet anyone that the Thomas Cup is not coming anywhere near our shores anytime soon.
The last time Malaysia won the Thomas Cup was in 1992, which was some 34 years ago. We have never brought the Uber Cup home since its inception in 1957, let alone reach a final. So I will not discuss the chances of our women’s team here because there are only two: slim and none.
But because of the luck of the draw, the women’s shuttlers are in Group B with Japan, Turkey and South Africa. They may reach the quarter-finals by virtue of being the group runners-up, but that’s as far as they will go.
As for the men’s team, they are also in Group B with Japan, England and Finland. Don’t be misled into thinking that they will breeze through to the quarter-finals.
On paper, Malaysia have a chance to top the group or qualify as runners-up and make it to the quarter-finals. But even if they do, they may not get past that stage.
Inconsistency and lethargy shown by Malaysia’s top shuttlers in recent tournaments, especially the All England Open and recently concluded Badminton Asian Championships, have made it clear that we can forget about winning the Thomas Cup.
The weakest link remains the singles department, where nothing seems to be going right in the last two years.
Based on the performances last year and the first four months of this year, the only guaranteed point may come from the men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia–Soh Wooi Yik. But they, too, have faltered occasionally, losing to much lower-ranked pairs.
Despite the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) spending huge amounts to bring in top foreign coaches, the players have not shown much improvement.
In contrast, second-tier players from China, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Denmark have improved by leaps and bounds.
Yes, I agree we should give the coaches more time to see results. However, fans have not seen even a semblance of consistent improvement in the players.
A case in point is Danish legend Kenneth Jonnasen. He was appointed head singles coach in January last year. That is like 16 months ago, to be exact.
But what do we see?
Top player Leong Jun Hao has become a serial first-round loser, exiting in the opening round in 12 tournaments last year, and three of five tournaments this year.
Some would have thought that Kenneth’s arrival could have at least seen Jun Hao making it to more quarter-finals and the last four stages. But that was never the case. And it looks like it will never be, looking at his progress.
Our second singles player, Justin Hoh, has also not shown much progress, despite the presence of national legend Lee Chong Wei on the BAM council since last August.
BAM’s surprise decision to include Lee Zii Jia in the Thomas Cup line-up appears to be aimed at strengthening the third singles slot in a five-match format, where top singles and doubles players are alternated with the third singles kept for the last tie.
Although bringing in Zii Jia appears to be a strategy to get the winning point if at all the ties go down to the wire, the former national No 1’s return after a six-month layoff due to injuries has not been exactly exciting.
He, too, was a first-round casualty in all but one of the five tournaments he took part in this year.
Frankly, he has been losing to too many younger players from other countries, showing that BAM banking on Zii Jia could be a miscalculation.
As for the men’s doubles, Malaysia brought in experienced Indonesian coaches, including Herry Iman Pierngadi, a highly regarded figure in the discipline, who brought much hope to the fans.
However, this seems to have made no difference at all.
Although Aaron-Wooi Yik have worked hard, there is an element of inconsistency. The oomph goes missing when it matters the most.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the question of whether highly rated and expensive coaches can make a difference in the performance of national shuttlers is being asked by fans on social media.
Or is there a systemic problem in talent scouting and management of developing the sport? Is it in the wrong hands?
We need honest answers here instead of basking in the glory of occasional titles, which are usually not the top ones.
Last year, the government allocated RM20 million for the Road to Gold project to produce at least one gold medal winner in the 2028 Olympic Games in the US.
With top and younger players from China, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia showing much improvement and consistency, the Malaysian 2028 Olympic gold medal dream is as good as over in my assessment.
By the looks of it, even securing a bronze seems to be elusive.
Instead of taking short-term actions, there is a need for BAM to go back to the drawing board to come up with long-term plans to bring back Malaysia to where they once were on the badminton map.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.