Kuala Lumpur: The newly appointment chairman of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coaching and training committee (CNT), Ng Chin Chai has said that he would trim down the 73-player Malaysian national badminton squad shortly.
The imminent shake-up would only retain top two singles players and pairs in the elite squad in all five departments, for example, Lee Chong Wei and Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin will belong to the men’s singles elite team while Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong and Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi will stay in the men’s doubles elite squad. Meanwhile, BAM will establish back-up squads that comprise only from players age 21 and below.
The new structure would require BAM to drop some under-performers such as 22-year-old Soo Teck Zhi, 23-year-old Soong Joo Ven, 23-year-old Chong Yee Han, 23-year-old Lim Chi Wing, 27-year-old Chooi Kah Ming and 24-year-old Low Juan Shen.
After the training session on Saturday, Soong Joo Ven who lost to Japan’s Kento Momota at the 2012 Asian Junior Championships final, told reporters that he’s prepared for whatever comes his way.
“We are all aware of it, there’s nothing we can do, we just train as usual,” said Soong.
“If I am no longer needed in BAM, I am going to continue my badminton career as a professional player just like Daren Liew and Chong Wei Feng,” added Soong.
Meanwhile, BAM’s mixed doubles head coach Pang Cheh Chang was not worried about the reorganization as his department has two pairs ranked in the World’s top 10, including World No. 7 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai and World No. 10 Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing.
Pang also stressed that his team is currently trying to help the Rio Olympic silver medalists and current World No. 31 Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying to slowly climb back to the World’s top 10 by end of 2018.
“Chin Chai has provided a rough plan about the restructuring, but further discussions are needed before the plan is being finalized,” said Pang.