Tuesday, October 15, 2013

LOSING THE PLOT

Has the Badminton Association of Malaysia lost its plot?
 
That seems to be the indication with several baffling moves made of late as the national body even snubbed the media last Saturday with regards to naming of the new doubles combinations.
 
Efforts to seek clarification from BAM President Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff proved futile over the past three days.
 
To be fair, even prior to this episode, BAM has been rather evasive of the media and the latest episode will surely further strain the relations.
 
The fickle mindedness of the officials within BAM needs to be changed if they harbor hopes of badminton surviving the pitfalls on the court.
 
With the Olympic Council of Malaysia having decided that October 10 was the last day for entries by name for the SEA Games, it is indeed peculiar as to why BAM has opted to keep the list close to their chest.
 
OCM can make the list public, but they too have opted not to reveal the names, so as not to offend BAM, thus making them guilty be association.
 
With the BAM playing games on the new pairings for the doubles, they may have forgotten that they have to stick with the names they had submitted to OCM.
 
Those listed as doubles pairings for the SEA Games are Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong with Tan Wee Kiong-Hoon Thien How and Goh V Shem-Lim Khim Wah, the other two pairs who have also been registered.
 
Among the shuttlers BAM has registered are men's singles, Lee Chong Wei,  Liew Daren and Chong Wei Feng and mixed doubles Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying  and they are in the A Category.
 
The likes of women singles players, Sonia Cheah, Tee Jing Yi, as well as doubles pairing of Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei will travel on Category B, meaning BAM will have to fork out the expenses and be reimbursed if they win at least a silver.