Skip to main content

NSC telss BAM to focus on major events


THE National Sports Council (NSC), due to budget constraints, has asked the BA
of Malaysia (BAM) to reduce its expenses on competitions and focus on preparations for this year’s four major events.



The directive is with immediate effect as NSC director general Datuk Zolkples Embong, who chairs the joint-committee, has only approved the competition budget until the All England on Mar 9-14.

Lee Chong Wei and men’s doubles Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and Ong Soon Hock-Hoon Thien How have been given an additional tournament — the Swiss Open on Mar 16-21 — as attention shifts to preparations for the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals on May 9-16 in Kuala Lumpur.


The other major events are the World Championships in Paris on Aug 23-29, Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Oct 3-14 and the Asian Games in Guangzhou on Nov 12-27.

Zolkples said BAM secretary P. Ganga Rao will bring the matter to the association’s coaching and training committee, which meets next month, and come up with a revised competition budget.

“We have to reduce the allocation for competitions due to budget constraints and the focus should be on the four major events. BAM’s proposal is bigger than what we have allocated and thus, only tournaments up to the All England have been approved,” said Zolkples.
“Winning gold in the World Championships, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games is the priority and as hosts, we must also do well in the Thomas Cup.

“Although Chong Wei has proven his worth, he is not getting any younger and we want him to be around until 2012 (London Olympics). Lin Dan has skipped the first two Super Series events and his focus is on the Thomas Cup, World Championships and obviously to win the Asian Games.

“I don’t want the players to burn out and fail to perform in the major events. The Laos Sea Games was a fine example where Chong Wei had to withdraw and that cost us two gold.

“I also believe trying out Soon Hock-Thien How is a good move and a wake-up call for Zakry Latif-Fairuzizuan Tazari who are struggling.”

NSC has approved just two doubles pairs — Kien Keat-Boon Heong and Soon Hock-Thien How — for the All England while four will be competing in the men’s singles.

The German Open, which will be held on Mar 2-7, will also have limited players where five men’s singles and three doubles pairs have been approved. The three pairs will also play in an additional tournament, the Austrian International Challenge on Feb 22-27

2010/01/28
K.M. Boopathy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more