Misbun turns down national coaching director job

Misbun Sidek

KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have been forced to switch to Plan B after Datuk Misbun Sidek turned down their offer to become the supremo of the national team.

Ironically, Plan B is basically reverting to their original coaching structure of appointing one chief coach each for the singles and doubles departments.

The BAM executive committee named Misbun’s younger brother, Rashid, as the singles chief coach on Thursday.

They will name the chief for the doubles department soon.

Asked if former international Yap Kim Hock, who attended an interview with the association last week, will head the doubles department, BAM president Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff said: “The exco did not make any decision on Kim Hock. He has just gone through one process (the interview) ... we will pass his application to another committee.”

Tengku Mahaleel admitted that Misbun’s decision to turn down the offer of national coaching director has forced them to re-look some of their plans.

“We wrote to Misbun and he responded by saying that he could not take up the offer because of personal matters,” said Tengku Mahaleel.

“We will now go back to our Plan B and appoint two chief coaches – one in the singles and one in the doubles.”

Mahaleel, however, admitted that a lack of discipline was one of the key contributors to the dearth of quality players, like world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei, coming through their conveyor belt.

“Our golden era in badminton was when we had many coaches from China (1988-1996). One of the significant attributes of these coaches was discipline. I have to admit that we lack that now ... but we will look into ways to instil discipline.”

Meanwhile, BAM deputy president Datuk Norza Zakaria announced that the new state-of-the-art badminton centre will be ready in 18 months – after several delays.

“Finally, we have received approval and work to build a first-class accommodation for about 200 players on a three-acre land adjacent to the Juara Stadium will take place,” said Norza.

“Once ready, we will be able to cater to all our juniors and they will be able to go into full-time training.”

Currently, all BAM juniors who are based at the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) are not full-time trainees.

The lack of training was identified as one of the reasons why Malaysian juniors are lagging behind their counterparts from China, South Korea and Japan.