With Lee Chong Wei's last and final appearance to represent Malaysia Thomas Cup team, predict who will be the team in future 2 years time...?
Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong would probably be still around to play an integral role in the team barring any incident. The rest? Can't say.
I only know that BAM do must improve their men singles department, or else when LCW retired, no one i mean NO ONE will able to succeed him as formidable national no.1 ...
Lee chong wei will definitely play till 2016. That's for certain, unless *touchwood*. (too bad MAS has to rely on him again for the 1st MS) As for the rest, 2 more year we discuss more.
LCW has been "retiring" since.... 2008? now he is gonna stick around until 2016, who knows, if no one manage to beat him consistently why not just keep the money tree alive.
Don't forget someone is heavily relying on him to cover their direction of Mas badminton, and someone's job is on the line too to achieve at least a medal for Malaysia in 2016 olympic games.
ramdan gohsoonhuat & maybe zufladli... anyway, weifeng & daren will stilll be only 29... then maybe soo tack zhi & soong joo ven has mature into a better players ???
I really do hope so. Went to a recent level IV tournament, the Maybank International Challenge and here are some stats of the players that showed up. 1. Soo Teck Zhi (19 years old) - was against Lu Chia Hung of Chinese Taipei in the 3rd round, a player 2 years his junior which he managed to beat easily last year. He either didn't conserve his energy, or simply had below par stamina for an international tournament. Lost steam in the 2nd set and slowed the pace while making any and every excuse to delay the game proceedings. He was also very temperamental and harassed the umpire to no end. He lost 22-20 13-21 18-21 in 1 hour 3 mins. Not great attitude at all. 2. Soong Joo Ven (19 years old) - was against team mate Goh Giap Chin. Really good match with both of them sending each other sprawling, and once Giap Chin even fell splitting but was okay. But it seemed that Joo Ven didn't expect it to be as tough as that and was constantly demotivated when he made mistakes. Giap Chin was spirited and relentless all the way, winning 21-18 17-21 21-8. 3. Cheam June Wei (17 years old) - tamely downed 21-13 21-16 in 31 mins by Azriyn Ayub. 4. Goh Soon Huat (24 years old) - downed by Azriyn Ayub before this round. 5. Zulfadli Zulkifli (20 years old) went all the way to semis, and had some unbelievable net shots performed over and over again against Hyun Il, but lacked the stamina in the 2nd set, faltering 21-17 21-7. He did wonders in the first set, and was leading 15-12, forcing Hyun Il out of his shell. But he just couldn't move in the 2nd set. 6. Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub (21 years old) - No one hypes about him but he managed a pretty good run against Goh Soon Huat and Cheam June Wei, only going down to Ronald Susilo in the quarters but not before taking a game from him. 7. Tan Chung Seang (28 years old) - The only guy who could play the 'big' games. ALL his matches ended in a rubber set, and he managed to beat Ronald Susilo (nothing to really boast about defeated aged players but that's all we have). He grabbed a set from Hyun Il in the finals, only to lose steam in the rubber, losing 21-17, 16-21, 11-21. But I am cautious as to whether it was due to stamina issues, as he had rubbers sets for ALL games before this, while Hyun Il had the luxury of bulldozing through matches, even having an under 10 score in the semis. However, Hyun Il had this wristly cross court chop drop that must have caught Chung Seang more than 10x. I dare say it worked 80% of the time as I only saw it come back once or twice. Things look bleak in deciding who to enter the Thomas Cup squad in 2 years. Given just this tournament my pick would be the 28 year old Chung Seang who is independent and not going to be selected anyway. Unless every junior players ups their stamina to be able to play grueling rubber sets 6 days in a row against international quality players.
good observation... Soong & Soo might has a future... but BAM & themselves have to start investing in them. Chun Seang was the best of his generation including Daren liew & Chong wei feng before He quit BAM. I remember Chun Seang used to beat Daren & weifeng easily in those days.