Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s chief coach Rashid Sidek was excluded from the Copenhagen World Championships after falling out with president of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff.
“The president called a management meeting on Wednesday, introduced Hendrawan as my replacement to the World Championships coaching staff,” said Rashid. The 1996 Atlanta Olympic bronze medalist also claimed that he had not been informed by BAM about that meeting.
Earlier this week, Tengku Mahaleel delivered harsh barrage against “the teacher” for Malaysia men’s singles’ poor performance at Glasgow Commonwealth Games, and Rashid Sidek appeared to be the person on the receiving end of all that blame.
The 46-year-old Rashid said if things starting to spiral out of control, he might quit his job even before his contract expire in December.
“I do not plan to stay here forever, and clearly, the end is near for my coaching days at BAM,” said Rashid.
“Let’s see what will happen in the next few months. If they treat me ok, I am willing to serve at BAM until my contract is up, otherwise, I will quit,” added Rashid.
Other coaches who will be going to Copenhagen are Tey Seu Bock, Pang Cheh Chang, Rosman Razak, and Jeremy Gan.
It’s really sad to see the former badminton star turned coach ends his 10-year tenure with BAM in such a chaos fashion. As BadmintonPlanet.com mentioned yesterday, coaches are like a moral compass for those badminton players, but the coaches cannot always be there to drive the ship. The last thing you want is leaving those shuttlers lost at sea without a compass. Wish both sides can reach a peaceful resolution for the benefit of Malaysian badminton.
