Glasgow: If losing in Thomas Cup final against Takuma Ueda has largely been forgiven by the home-country crowds, losing in the men’s singles quarter-finals of Commonwealth Games against P. Kashyap may be the final straw for Daren Liew.
Speaking with reporters on Sunday, Malaysia’s national singles coach – two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist Rashid Sidek expressed his disappointment at Malaysia’s men’s singles performance in the Commonwealth Games, and was especially dismayed by Daren Liew’s lackluster form.
“Daren is a very talented player, until he address his attitude and behavior problems in exchange for better performance, we shouldn’t send him to any upcoming tournaments as he already been given more than enough opportunities to excel,” said Rashid.
“From now on, I would recommend BAM to start investing in younger players, and to give players such as Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin and Goh Soon Huat more exposure at higher level tournaments,” added Rashid.
“We would replace Daren with one of these junior players for the Asian Games in South Korea next month.”
Meanwhile, Rashid was more magnanimous towards Chong Wei Feng who lost to R.M.V Gurusaidutt of India 15-21, 21-8, 21-17 in the quarter-finals.
“Wei Feng did his part in the Thomas Cup Finals and in the Commonwealth Games mixed team event. Although he didn’t go as far as we want him to in the men’s singles event at Glasgow, but, he has the right attitude, and he should be able to bounce back in future tournaments,” said Rashid.
For now, it is safe to say Chong Wei Feng is still vital to the Malaysia national team until next wave of players is ready to step into the spotlight.
