Lessons from the Sidek legacy

Formidable five: Rashid, Misbun, Rahman, Jalani and Razif Sidek.

THE success of the Sidek brothers will always be a highlight of Malaysian badminton history. But, says Olympian Datuk Razif, there are always lessons to be learnt from history.

One of them is that money will always follow success.Misbun, Razif, Jalani, Rashid and Rahman made their presence felt over three decades - 1980s, 1990s and 2000 - and are currently still active as coaches in either the national team or clubs.

There have been ups and downs, controversies and drama too but the famous siblings have always stood tall above it all.

Olympian Razif hoped the exploits of the Sideks will continue to inspire the future generation of badminton stars in the country.

“For me, it all started with a motivation to win glory for the country. I loved every opportunity to play for the nation. I reaped the reward of hard work but eventually, our success benefited the future generation too, ” said Razif, who won the All-England title with Jalani in 1982.

The turning point according to Razif was in 1992 when Malaysia wrested the Thomas Cup after 25 years and bagged a bronze medal through Razif-Jalani when badminton was first introduced as a sport at the 1992 Olympic Games.

“The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) received many sponsorship offers after our success that year, ” said Razif.

“The sport grew rapidly and has now become very popular in the country. Many youths were inspired to be stars just like us.

“We had set the standard for the upcoming players.”

But he has a warning. The youngsters of today must not to rest on their laurels.

“If the players of this generation do not step up, the future players will suffer. The sport may not enjoy the same privileges and sponsors unless there are results.

“There are signs of a slowdown in Malaysian badminton and we need to take drastic measures to keep churning out good players for the nation.”

In order to revive the Malaysian badminton fortunes, he hoped parents would continue to motivate their children to play badminton like his late father Datuk Sidek Abdullah Kamar was instrumental in his life.

“Our father pushed us to become good shuttlers during our junior days and we will always be grateful for that, ” he said.

“I began my career as a singles player and later partnered Jalani to win numerous local titles in the Under-18 categories.

“In 1980, I partnered Ong Beng Teong and Jalani forged a partnership with Misbun but these partnerships did not last long. My father instructed Jalani and I to play in the doubles again and told Misbun to focus on the singles. There was no turning back after that.

On the successful partnership with Jalani, Razif said they had a special chemistry.

“We just had a knack and understanding with each other - which is important in a doubles event, ” he said.

“Jalani is only a year younger than me and Misbun is two years older, the three of us were very close and would always talk about badminton and strategies. We ate, slept, trained and talked about our badminton life all the time.”

He said winning the All-England for the first time in 1982 would always be special.

“I was 20 and Jalani was 19. Those days, winning the All-England was equivalent to being champions of the world. We didn’t expect to go far but we defeated the best players in the world, ” he said.

But that year’s All-England was also the last time the brothers were able to use their controversial ‘S’ service.

“We created this ‘S” service, where we served by hitting the shuttle from the feathers. This caused the shuttle to move erratically and made it difficult for the opponents to return it, unfortunately, it was banned, ” said Razif.

Dynamic duo: Razif Sidek and his younger brother Jalani with their All-England doubles champions trophy they won in 1982.

“We as players have to be creative. I’m tired of players giving excuses that their opponents are better. The players must find ways to come out with something extraordinary to overcome their opponents.”

Razif said it was also important to have centralised training camps prior to major tournaments.

“We trained every day for three months before the 1992 Thomas Cup Finals in Kuala Lumpur. There were no other tournaments, ” said Razif.

“We finished runners-up to China in the 1988 and 1990 editions and we didn’t want that to happen again.

“We even had a training camp in Langkawi for one month to be away from any distraction. We focused purely on training. That gave us enough motivation to give all out during the Finals.”

Their dedication and commitment paid off when they stunned China 4-1 in the semi-finals before beating Indonesia 3-2 in a thriller for the Cup.

There were celebrations every day after the superb win. There was no escaping the distraction this time and Razif said they had to pay the price by falling short of their own expectations at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

“I’ll never forget it. We had parades around the country in every state with the Thomas Cup trophy. We were celebrating almost every day.

“With only two months between the Thomas Cup and Barcelona Games, our preparations were affected. We probably ended up eating more than we should because of all those events, ” Razif admitted.

They still went on to become Malaysia’s first Olympic medallists by winning a bronze medal after losing to Kim Moon-soo-Park Joo-bong of South Korea in the semi-finals.

Razif retired after the Thomas Cup in 1994 where they finished runners-up to Indonesia in Jakarta.

He became the national chief coach for the next two years and led the team to the country’s first-ever silver medal at the Olympics when Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock won it in Atlanta, United States, and his younger brother Rashid bagged the country’s first singles’ bronze.

Razif is now 57 but he is not done yet.

He may have not realised his dream of winning an Olympic gold medal for the nation but he is hoping for his son Mohd Fazriq, an aspiring junior at the Bukit Jalil Sports School, to carry on the Sidek’s legacy.