KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has not been told of any changes to the Badminton Asia Team Championships scheduled for February 11-16 in Manila following the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China.
There is a possibility of the tournament being cancelled or postponed after the Philippines recorded its first death from 2019-nCoV two days ago, and the Philippine government has also blocked the entry of all arrivals from China, Hong Kong and Macau, except citizens and permanent residents of the Philippines.
BAM president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said there had been no word from the Badminton Asia and the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on the tournament, which is also a qualifying tournament for the Thomas and Uber Cups 2020 in Denmark from May 16 to 24.
“If the Philippine government blocked the Chinese citizens from entering the country, it might also do the same to the Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau teams.
“So we will monitor closely, as for now everything is still status quo. We do not know what the change is going to involve because it also affects the policies of the Philippine government,” he told a press conference after the BAM Management Committee meeting at the Malaysian Badminton Academy here today.
In Manila, the national men’s team are in Group C along with Chinese Taipei and Singapore, while the women’s team are grouped with Japan and Hong Kong in Group W.
Yesterday, Badminton Asia announced that the 2020 Badminton Asia Championship (individual) scheduled for April 21-26 will remain in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, but said it has a contingency plan with other cities ready to host the tournament within and outside of China.
The tournament offers qualifying points for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
BWF had previously postponed the Lingshui China Masters, which was scheduled to take place from February 25 to March 1, which is also one of the Olympic qualifying championships, due to the coronavirus outbreak. — Bernama
