I was just looking at the entries in the website and was surprised by the deluge of MAS MDs and the dearth of MAS MS.How does BAM decide on who to send? Does it have any strategy or ranking awareness?It seems BAM has none. Right now,MAS has 5 MS ranked 50 onwards(cwf,kbh,al,tcs,dl) who are likely to have to play qualifying to get into SS main draw.Surely one of the priorities must be to maximise opportunities for these to play so they can chalk up enough ranking points to enter the main draw of SS.Yet none of these MS are entered. If budget was the problem,BAM could have cut out 3 doubles (MD, WD or XD) to make way for the more crucial MS.Otherwise these MAS MS will waste a lot of energy and BAM a lot of money just making headway.In MS, it's crucial not to have to play qualifying.Each time one MAS MS manages to win enough points to enter the main draw, then priority should be given to the next higher ranked to play.Eg,ideally all 5 MAS MS should be entered.If both cwf and KBH do well enough to reach rank 40 or better, then al, tcs,dl should have priority for the next tournaments. It's a big mistake of BAM not to send these 5 MAS MS. Not only do they miss the opportunity to measure themselves against CHN MS young guns.Participation would also deprive CHN from maximising their MS entries and opportunities to gain ranking points. I hope BAM send these 5 MAS MS to the HKO08.Just reduce the doubles entries.
Rashid Sidek has already complained abt this before. When list for those in 2012 senior squad are out & implemented in Nov 2008, we shall see what BAM does. TCS, CWF, Liew Daren, Arif are expected to be promoted to senior squad for MS. Julia Wong & Lydia Cheah are the obvious choices to be promoted for WS. I'm not sure how Rexy manage to send the doubles team but : 1) MD, WD & XD play two dept, doubles & mixed doubles. Except for seniors, WPT/CEH, the gals are more of XD specialists. If we look at it dept. by dept, mixed & doubles are different, so there's additional budget(maybe) for Rexy to play around with. 2) There were 6 senior MD before this. I think budget was already allocated for these 6 senior MD at the beginning of the yr. After OG, the $$$$ for CTF/LWW was used for the youngsters instead.
list of players for china open (2) are here http://chinaopen2008.cba.org.cn/en/bulletin/2008-10-17/217339.html
It is despairing to see LCW failing tournament after tournament - he needs an injection of energy. Against Taufik, he looked like was 'gone' in the 2nd set. Maybe besides that, he needs company (younger guys who will show enthusiasm) to share the challenge - currently, having just Hafiz and Wong Choon Han for company does not give him that comradeship that he said he needs. My prediction is that he will come home empty handed again from the CO. Hallelujah !
well...peter gade is tough for him...and if he meets park in semis...also a tough match...just hope lcw withdraw from johor open...hehe...
