MAY 31 — The national team lost to Japan in Thomas Cup finals, but our players’ performance is still worthy our praises. Nevertheless the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) honorary secretary Ng Chin Chai said Malaysian are the spoiled lot as they were raised in a “tidak apa” environment with lax discipline while our schools have failed to train the students to be more self disciplined and independent, hence their lack of strong personalities and less matured mentality.

He cited the examples of China, South Korea and Japan, adding that people from those countries are generally more self disciplined and confident, and they have stronger and more versatile personalities to face the crisis.

On that evening of Thomas Cup finals, I watched the entire program like many fellow Malaysians, and indeed I had the same feeling as Ng. Before the game even started, we could see the difference between the players from Japan and Malaysia. The Japanese looked confident and proud while our players lacked that confidence.

I am not an expert in the badminton game, and only played it occasionally when I was much younger. I wouldn’t say my opinion has been objective and unbiased, but after watching the whole program, I personally had a very powerful feeling that technically we were never inferior to the Japs although our boys did make a lot of mistakes and were less adaptable than their Japanese opponents. We were defeated in the end largely because we paled in our psychological build-up.

Ng talked about “spoiled kid” factor during his recent interview with Sin Chew Daily. As a matter of fact, this same issue is encountered by all nations, in particular China, largely because of the country’s one-child policy. Many young people are the only kids in their respective families and were therefore spoiled by their parents when they were young. But then why China produced so many world champions?

Talking about this, I have no choice but to touch on the differences in the badminton systems in different countries. This invariably brings me back to BAM’s reform joke last year and the ensuing disciplinary issues in relation to not just the players but also coaches.

BAM was having a re-election last July. The newly elected president Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff soon announced the hiring of Tan Aik Mong as the talent management group director while implementing a series of major reforms. Unfortunately such actions backfired. First, the resignation of men singles coach Rashid Sidek, and then Tan himself resigned after only 18 days in office and Rashid dramatically returned to the national team.

I’m sure many badminton enthusiasts in this country can still recall this incident. What I would like to say is that if a coach can come and go this easily, where is the credibility of the BAM? And how do we expect our players to be disciplined and build up a formidable team spirit?

Ng said both China and South Korea are very particular about team discipline, and that their players are only allowed home once every two weeks after training. But in Malaysia, some of our players just skip training after only two days. If this is true, I wont’ be surprised at all why all the youth champions we have produced could not last long and grow into Lee Chong Wei number two.

Celebrated Chinese badminton coach Li Mao has coached the players from China, South Korea and Malaysia, and he has a perfect understanding of the badminton ecosystem in these three countries.

In a recent interview, Li highlighted the differences between Korean and Chinese players. He said, “The Korean coach is like a father, the Korean badminton association the grandfather, while the players are like the children. In China, the kids have listen to the father, but in Korea, they have to listen to the grandpa, while the coach is only responsible for the training and has no say in the trainees’ life.”

Then how about between Malaysia and Korea? You must wonder how Li would reply. He said, “In Korea, the coach has the absolute power to determine whether a player should go or leave, but in Malaysia, a really good layer can act like boss!”

After so many years we are still having a very near brush with the Cup. I doubt what Li Mao has to say about our new generation players this time, and whether he agrees to what Ng Chin Chai has to say, that our players are still that “bossy.”

It is our hope that Malaysian players will buck up a little and prove with their actions and performances that the BAM secretary has been wrong. — mysinchew.com

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.