Another badminton related posting after komen pasal Axiata Cup haritu. When talking about Thomas Cup tahun ni everybody will straight away ingat kecederaan DLCW masa lawan Peter Gade. Memang sadis la tengok Chong Wei nangis belakang court masa nak tunggu kerusi roda. As we all knows, Chong Wei sedih sangat bukan sahaja sebab tak dapat tolong Malaysia di Thomas Cup, tapi pasal kemungkinan peluang beraksi di Olimpik menjadi samar. Pasal injury tu memang we can’t blame anybody lah, takkan nak minta Chong Wei skip Thomas Cup semata-mata sebab nak tunggu Olimpik. Piala Thomas pun ada prestij yang tersendiri. Lagipun peluang sparring dengan best players before Olimpik merupakan satu persiapan yang baik untuk dia. Even team paling sombong, China pun masukkan barisan players paling power yang mereka ada. Chong Wei pun baru baik shoulder injury, so memang molek sangat lah gunakan Thomas Cup untuk gaining his peak performance back. Ada pula cakap-cakap ‘pakar kasut’ yang menyalahkan kasut Chong Wei, kononnya tapak terlalu tebal, so itu yang menyebabkan Chong Wei terpelecuk. Kelakar... memang kelakar, Chong Wei dari remaja ditaja oleh Yonex, dan kasut kaler kuning model SHB-92MX itu specially design for Chong Wei. Takkan la dah bertahun-tahun pakai, baru sekarang kasut tu ada problem tetiba.
Dan yang tak kurang kelakar, bila 26 juta rakyat Malaysia terus lupakan Thomas Cup lepas Chong Wei injured. Ditambah pula lepas kalah dengan Denmark, kita diundi lawan mighty Chinese di quarter final. So, semua orang putus harapan dan takde niat nak ponteng kerja atau balik keja awal untuk tengok live telecast lagi.
So, lets put Chong Wei injury aside. As world powerhouse in badminton, Malaysia sepatutnya kena layak at least semi final setiap kali Thomas Cup with an ease. Ini tidak, selain Chong Wei, we seriously can't guarantee any point from others in our line-up if againts country like China, Korea, Indonesia and maybe Jepun sekali pun. Sememangnya menakutkan, imagine our junior (theorytically 3rd single and 2nd double adalah junior) can't compete with players from other country on the same age level. Even our 2nd double pun barely known by Malaysian sports followers, not to mention the other Chong Wei (reserve single player, Chong Wei Feng), muka pun tak kenal apatah lagi corak permainan. No offend to him, tapi umur Chong Wei Feng ni 24 tahun dah… bukan player remaja pun.
Chong Wei Feng, ada yang kenal?
Our single player kecuali DLCW, base on rangking yang digunakan untuk Thomas Cup 2012 ranks antara 32 (Liew Darren), 33 (Hafiz) dan 39 (Chong Wei Feng).... tiga puluh lebih ranked dalam dunia... teruk gila...! When talking about double players pula, Koo - Tan performance dah boleh dikategorikan sebagai salah satu 'misteri sukan'. I can’t understand how on earth, mereka boleh merudum teruk sangat. Masa mereka mula-mula took the badminton world by storm in 2006, sehinggalah 2010, for 4 years memang nampak seolah-olah mereka unbeatable. Satu persatu jagoan dunia mereka tumbangkan, and with their young age, semua orang memuji Rexy sebab berjaya create champion from scratch, in short period of time. But suddenly their performance drop macam bola bergolek jatuh dari gunung. Takkan lah takde lansung apa-apa yang boleh dibuat oleh barisan jurulatih kita. Alasan-alasan standard adalah sebab semua orang dah tahu corak mereka, mental strength, Koo can't smash, too fancy play, lack of motivation, bla..bla..bla... cari problem memang lah senang, kita nak solution. Bila coaches split them up masa lawan Denmark, it is obvious sebenarnya jurulatih Malaysia dah putus harapan dengan kombinasi Koo - Tan. If not because of Olympic, for sure mereka dah dipisahkan permanently. Pasal memisahkan Koo-Tan, dengan months before Olympic, memang tidak membantu meningkatkan keyakinan mereka lansung. But, even terpaksa nak split jugak, tactically aku percaya they do it wrong, even kalau nak split them up since we can’t believe they can get anything vs 1st double of Denmark and China, they should let Tan and Hoon Thian How play 2nd double and promote the other younger double became 1st and drop 'the performer' Koo Kien Kiet altogether. Aku percaya Tan and Hoon yang main dari remaja have bigger chance to snatch a point kalau lawan 2nd double of any country. And it is also a good for Kim – Goh to try take best double player in the world by playing agains 1st double of respective country. Ok, aku faham dilemanya, in case 1st single, 1st double and 2nd single semua kalah, takde chance Tan-Hoon nak main. Tapi, sama juga, what the point asking them to go out and fight the battle we knew they will lose eventually? Much better if we put some trust on our single players (even without Chong Wei) and slot Tan - Hoon di 2nd double, that can gurantee to clinth the winning point or drag the game to 3rd single. Apa-apapun, tak kisahlah pasal tactical mistake tu. Kalau players power macam China, tak perlu strategy tukar-tukar player, turunkan je player ikut ranking dan normal pairs. Hakikatnya memang players kita tak cukup bagus...
Regardless what excuse BAM or in particularly Datuk Nadzmi or si Chin Chai tu cakap, popularity dan tradisi sememangnya tidak memungkinkan kita terkial-kial nak lahirkan barisan player pelapis yang berkualiti. Berkualiti maksudnya bukan sahaja menang age group competition, tapi pemain muda yang hanya memerlukan 2-3 tahun main circuit international before boleh break into top 10 ranking dunia. Tidak seperti kebanyakkan sukan lain, sukan badminton memang mendapat status yang tinggi dikalangan kanak-kanak dan yang penting ibu bapa mereka. Kalau budak umur 10 tahun pandai main bola, main olahraga, main bola tampar dan sebagainya, parents will still hope their child to excel in academic, since they know sport tu sekadar nak bagi anak dia sihat, berdisplin, built confident, etc. Badminton lain, especially for Chinese parents, kalau anak dia jadi champion daerah for badminton they will support to the max. Hantar train club yang berlambak di bandar-bandar besar di Malaysia. Even aku kenal seorang bapa yang kaya raya, hantar anak dia berlatih di club di China.... dan kawan pakcik ni pula hantar dua orang anak dia train di club Indonesia. So, masalah 'pool player tak besar' cuma alasan budak-budak BAM. Sama seperti alasan Singapore import player (dalam semua sukan) dengan cakap rakyat mereka sikit... lawak... memang lawak. Ada beribu kanak-kanak main badminton untuk sekolah masing-masing. Easy calculation, ada kurang sikit daripada 10 ribu sekolah di Malaysia, around half adalah sekolah rendah. So, if each school ada 5 orang pemain wakil sekolah dalam badminton, kita sebenarnya ada at least 25 ribu player dibawah usia 12 tahun. Tak cukup lagi ke? So, it just matter of callobaration with MOE to arrange sistematic inter-school tourney, smartly pick the talents and groom them to become world best. Memang la susah, sebab tu la pegawai-pegawai BAM dibayar gaji ribuan ringgit. They should not use the money to find stupid excuse, susah sangat ke nak ngaku salah dan pass the responsibility to others.
Bottom linenya, aku harap lepas kegagalan di Olympic nanti akan berlaku perubahan besar dalam BAM. Tak kisah la nak reformasi ke, transformasi ke... or what ever istilahnya (depends support DSAI or DS Najib), janji memang kena overhaul.
Our badminton fans deserve more to cheer about beside Dato’ Lee Chong Wei sahaja carry national flag in every badminton competition.
