Kuala Lumpur: Former president of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Tan Sri Elyas Omar urged current president of BAM Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff and men’s singles coach Rashid Sidek to resolve their conflicts immediately. Tan Sri Elyas said the attitude of pointing fingers at each other after the poor performance of men’s singles at Glasgow is otherwise inappropriate, and both parties must share the responsibility equally.
“If a player does not play well, the BAM officials can’t put the blame on the coaches alone. Instead, it is a shared responsibility, both sides should come together to find solutions to the men’s singles problem,” said Elyas.
“It’s sad to see we’ve failed to defend the Commonwealth Games gold medal that we won since 1990. To me, the Commonwealth Games was a second class tournament, and if we couldn’t even win the second-class tournament, how are we going to win those first-class tournaments such as the Asian Games?” added Elyas.
“That’s why we cannot have the attitude of pointing fingers because it will have negative impacts on the sport of badminton in Malaysia. The most important thing to do now is to find our shortcomings, and get them fixed, ” he said.
It was under the guidance of the then BAM President Tan Sri Elyas Omar and his secretary Datuk Punch Gunalan (who was also team manager), Malaysia managed to capture Thomas Cup in 1992 – the last time they’ve won the trophy.
