From left: Alex Liew, Timmy Tan, Adrian Ang, Ahmad Muaz Fishol, Zulmazran Zulkifli and Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek will lead the Malaysian charge at the men's World Bowling Championship in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
PETALING JAYA: Team events call for different tactics.
So, the two silvers won at the Incheon Asian Games should not be the yardstick on how team tactics will shape up when the Men’s World Bowling Championships get under way in Abu Dhabi today.
Malaysia’s six-man team – Alex Liew, Adrian Ang, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek, Timmy Tan and Ahmad Muaz Fishol – together with head coach Holloway Cheah and coach Ben Heng arrived in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
However, they had to wait for four hours at the team’s hotel lounge before their rooms were made available at 11am. Then, they were off to the Khalifa Bowling Centre for their unofficial practice at 5.30pm.
Yesterday, they had their 90-minute official practice at 3pm.
Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) secretary-general Cheah Ban Cheng has also played down talks about tactics and targets at the championships, which will feature 272 bowlers from 49 countries.
“It’s still too early to talk team tactics. Most importantly, the coaches will be keeping a close eye on how the bowlers adapt to the lanes and how they fare in the singles competition (which begins today) and make their decisions after that,” said Ban Cheng.
The bowlers have been on a tight schedule, having competed in back-to-back tournaments – the KL Open (Nov 14-22) and the Milo International Junior All Stars and Masters last week – and now the world meet.
The team, who are said to be as fit as a fiddle by Ban Cheng, have three previous podium finishers.
Alex and Zulmazran were part of the silver medal winning team of 2006. Zulmazran also bagged the trios bronze that year with Ben and Aaron Kong.
Adrian and Muhd Nur Aiman Khairuddin scored a silver in the doubles in Munich four years ago.
“We always go into a championship bent on striving for excellence. No bowler on this team is a passenger and, as always, we’re hoping for a good showing. We’ll be happy with medals of any colour,” said Ban Cheng.
Malaysia struck gold in the Manila edition in 1979 when J.B. Koo, Allan Hooi and Edward Lim took top spot in the trios. Koo also bagged a silver in the Masters.
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