Kuala Lumpur: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) had firmly refuted a news report linking national number one men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia as walking away from the association.
Its secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said the current world number seven was completely unaware of the recent rumours of him quitting the BAM and remain committed with them.
“His determination and vision remains the same as the leading national men’s singles player of the country. He is 100 per cent focused on Paris 2024,” he said on BAM’s Facebook post Thursday.
On Wednesday, a local news portal reported that the 2021 All England champion would leave BAM and continue his journey as a professional player next.
Not only that, it was reported that 23-year-old would receive an enormous seven figure amount of sponsorship money should he decide to do so.
Meanwhile, former national player Roslin Hashim said it is more practical and suitable for BAM doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky to be on the court training the players, rather than receiving reports from other coaches.
Roslin, who was ‘shocked’ by the restructuring of the coaching lineup announced by BAM, drew attention to the fact that it would be a loss for the sports body if Rexy held the new position.
He said this was because the doubles expert from Indonesia would perform best when working hands-on, as he had previously successfully guided Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong to win gold at the 2006 Asian Games, besides helping to improve the performance of the Thai squad as its head coach, including guiding the Uber Cup team to reach the final for the very first time in 2018.
“When he came back to Malaysia…his function as a coach is almost non-existent, we want his expertise in terms of coaching players, but now, in this position, he only receives reports from the coaches.
“This means he may not be on the court to train our players, and based on my understanding, Rexy does not seem to have a coaching function, because all the coaches are under him. If so, it is a waste to bring Rexy to BAM,” he said when contacted by Bernama, Thursday.
On Tuesday, BAM announced a new coaching structure that saw coaching director Wong Choong Hann take over as the singles department director while Rexy, who is also the deputy coaching director, was appointed as the doubles department director.
Roslin, who won the men’s singles gold in the 2001 SEA Games, also questioned BAM’s move to restructure the coaching line-up, as it only served to complicate things further by dividing the posts to evaluate players into two.
“What is BAM really trying to do? For me, Choong Hann alone is enough to evaluate all the players, as he did previously,” he added.
According to BAM’s Coaching and Training Committee chairman Datuk Kenny Goh, the new approach would see coaching directors being able to focus more on their respective departments, and come up with solutions to issues more quickly.
Prior to this, each of the five departments, namely men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles had their own head coach and coach, who reported to Choong Hann.
