National junior coaches missing their departed 'captain'
11 Aug 2023 06:37pm
National youth singles coaches who were under the leadership of Academy of Badminton Malaysia’s (ABM) former Youth Singles Coaching Development Director Datuk Misbun Sidek are missing their ‘captain’ since his unceremonious departure. - BERNAMA
National youth singles coach Mohd Hazwan Jamaluddin said he along with his two other counterparts, Misbun Ramdan Misbun (Misbun’s son) and Goh Giap Chin have to discuss and consult with each other before making decisions regarding the squad.
"We do not make decisions solitarily, all matters will be discussed first before a decision is made,” he said at a training session here today.
Misbun is understood to have rejected the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) offer to return to his duties as the national youth singles development director until his original contract expires at the end of this year.
BAM President Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria had earlier apologised to Misbun following the crisis between the governing body and the coach regarding the less-than-dignified termination of his contract, explaining that it was due to a miscommunication.
Meanwhile, Mohd Hazwan described BAM’s action of allowing junior players to train with the senior camp as a positive step in helping his players face the 2023 BWF World Junior Championships in Spokane, Washington from Sept 25 to Oct 8.
He said since the BAM has yet to list the players to Washington, he will choose players who show high commitment and discipline in training sessions to be considered for the tournament.
Regarding the draw for the World Juniors in Washington, he hoped the players would give their best performance and reminded the national squad to be wary of the challenges from other countries as their pace of play is still difficult to read.
The draw carried out on Wednesday saw the national mixed squad, which is the third seed in the tournament, placed in Group C with England, Latvia and Poland.
Only the group winners qualify for the quarter-finals.
In October last year, Malaysia failed to reach the quarter-finals at the World Junior Championships in Santander, Spain and finished the mixed team event in ninth place defeating Denmark, 4-1.
It was even more abject when for the first time, no national player qualified for the quarter-finals of the singles competition. - BERNAMA
