Kuala Lumpur: The 2022 Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) will be held in Setia City Convention Centre of Shah Alam, Selangor from February 15 to February 20, 2022.
Although the BATC is the qualifier for the 2022 Thomas & Uber Cup Finals in Thailand, some of the strongest countries in badminton such as China, Taiwan, and Thailand have decided to pull out due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organizer said that badminton powerhouse China had already siad that it won’t take part in the 2022 BATC due to the strict COVID-19 lockdown protocol in China.
After the withdrawal of these teams, there will be only eight teams left in BATC, including Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Kazakhstan, and hosts Malaysia.
Semi-finalists of the men’s and the women’s teams at BATC would qualify automatically for the 2022 Thomas & Uber Cup Finals that will be held in Thailand from May 8 to May 15.
At the 2020 BATC in Manila, World No. 69 Cheam June Wei of Malaysia, was the most stable player on the team, recording three remarkable wins since the quarter-finals. He defeated Son Wan Ho of Korea 21-18, 9-21, 21-14 in the quarter-finals, World No. 19 Kenta Nishimoto 21-19, 3-21, 21-12 in the semi-final tie against Japan, and recorded the only win for Malaysia against World No. 8 Jonatan Christie 21-16, 17-21, 24-22 in the final tie against Indonesia. However, the Malaysian men’s team eventually lost to Indonesia 1-3 in the final.
Unfortunately, Cheam has decided to quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) at the end of 2021, and he is now joining reigning World Champion – Loh Kean Yew to train together with Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, Viktor Axelsen in Dubai.
In the 2020 edition, Japan defeated South Korea 3-0 in the women’s team final.
