KUALA LUMPUR: Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) chief executive officer Michelle Chai indicated that she is ready to resign following the lacklustre performance of the national women’s squad that was eliminated from the Cambodia SEA Games in Phnom Penh, yesterday.
Michelle said the shocking 0-3 defeat at the hands of Philippines women’s squad in the quarter-finals at Morodok Techo Badminton Hall, National Stadium was an unacceptable outcome and required a solution from the ABM management and coaches.
“The fact is that the gap between our country and the Philippines is very far, we have everything compared to them including the full support of the association. They lack experience and some of their players have not participated in a competitive match in three years.
“The (defeat) excuse that we sent young players, lack of experience apart from the lack of participation in tournaments cannot be used as a valid reason and the defeat can only be accepted if we lose to a stronger team,” she told reporters in a press conference at ABM, Bukit Kiara, here today.
Michelle said at the same time ABM needs to stop ‘hiding’ behind the excuse when the national squad fail to show success in any tournaments and games in the future.
Michelle also asked her team consisting of high performance director Dr Tim Jones, doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky and singles coaching director Wong Choong Hann to ‘reflect’ on themselves following the poor performance of the women’s badminton squad in Cambodia.
“We have to ask ourselves whether we have played a complete role in adding value to these athletes. If it is no longer possible to do so and the impact is not felt why are we still here? Maybe it’s time this team needs a ‘new wind’,” she said.
According to Michelle, despite having a long-term plan that is seen to be able to produce the desired results, she really wants to see the achievements in the near term realised.
“We have long-term planning, but we also want to see changes within three or six months. To be honest, long-term planning will not be seen now because it takes time,” she said.
Yesterday, the national women’s badminton squad once again repeated the disappointing act of the 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam after getting knocked out in the quarter-finals of the team badminton event. – BERNAMA
