Story of BAM From the mid to late 70s, Malaysian badminton had become bland. The last Thomas Cup victory in 1967 is but a dream. Afterwards, even getting to the final rounds was a challenge. We even had trouble against Thailand. After Ng Boon Bee and Punch Gunalan retired, about the only world class players we had during the era was the 1st doubles pair of Dominic Soong/HC Cheah. Dominic has since emigrated to Canada, if I am not mistaken. What did we win during that time? Hmm, let's see, Commonwealth Games and SEA Games Medals (only 1 of which is Gold, and that too from Sylvia Ng). We were overmatched even at SEA Games level, and our best team competition result was the 1976 Thomas Cup, where we qualified for the final only to be blanked by Indonesia. BAM mgmt at that time was unspectacular. Then came the Sidek brothers and Ong Beng Teong in 1980. From the time Misbun/Jalani Sidek qualified for the World Championship semis (losing to Ade Candra/Christian Hadinata) to when Misbun himself humbled the then All-England champion Prakash Padukone, BAM was aware that it has the necessary material to pose a serious challenge. So what did BAM do? Nothing much. Even though Malaysia became one of the more dominant countries in badminton again, the critical aspect of coaching was not improved. Misbun Sidek had to resort to training by himself once to prepare for competition, and he proved his worth by beating many higher ranked players to finish runnerup. It seemed that BAM had not much ambition at the time. This changed when Dr Elyas Omar (then Mof Kuala Lumpur) took over. First thing he did was to employ Chinese top drawer coaches. Fang Kaixiang became the 1st, followed by Han Jian, Yang Yang, Chen Changjie etc. Imagine this, within less than 6 months training under Coach Fang, Malaysia qualified for its 1st ever Thomas Cup final in 21 years. The title was to come 4 years later. Elyas also adopted the open door policy, players can speak freely to him on whatever issues they have and he would try to resolve them. After the Thomas Cup victory in 1992, players were starting to get spoilt with too many incentives and rewards (the origin of the big headed mentality). Such that in the Olympic Games a few months later, only Razif/Jalani Sidek managed to maintain their form and grab a bronze medal. Indonesia, humbled in the Thomas Cup, regained their pride with the (now married) pair of Alan Budi Kusuma and Susi Susanti. Not only that, they captured 3 of 4 MS semis slot. With the success in 1992, aspiring politicians began to weave their web to take control of BAM Management (much like BWF now). Elyas Omar left, replaced by his politically strong deputy, but we never managed to regain the Thomas Cup or any high level titles. Veteran players (such as the Sidek Brothers) were very unhappy with the way Elyas was treated, they did not reconcile with the BAM until only recently. Koo/Tan's victories in Doha Asiad and All-England seemed to show that BAM is regaining its form under the current (less political) leadership. But by now it has the added burden of big-headed players and the stigma from the BWF leadership crisis.
Wow. great info there on the history of Badminton Malaysia. How is Misbun doing during his days as a player? I first started watching when Rashid and Foo Kok Keong played. Rashid is pretty much like today Chong Wei only Chong Wei are slightly more consistent. Both are skillful and agile but less powerfull play. Live under the shadow of Arbi/Ardy/Alan and Sun Jun, like today chong wei's LD/TH but still can beat them on a good day. But CW is now moving away under the shade of LD and TH.
Misbun had a certain medical condition that made his performance roughly inconsistent. He can beat the best players on some days and lose to unknowns on other days. Initially, I thought he was inconsistent until the info on his medical history came out. But there was no doubting his talent. But I do wish he was given better quality coaching in his career. By the time Fang Kaixiang came along, Misbun was almost at the end of his career. Err, Rashid is not like LCW at all, he has limited defense (exploited by Arbi on countless occasions including 1994 Thomas Cup final). Although he had better stamina, more consistent and is faster, I would rate Misbun as the better player overall. Rashid had the tendency to give up too easily, quite the opposite of Foo Kok Keong.
You reminded me of a match between FooKK vs Ardy Wiranata (I think it's Thomas Cup 92). The match lasted in rubber sets and FooKK vomitted after the marathon match. He was a real fighter and I cant imagine if any players could last the match in long rallies. No smashing, just hitting four corners shots. Rashid is very talented but mentally not strong (compared to FooKK). I'm not in the Misbun era so no comment but I heard his cross court drop was his best weapon. Anyway, all of them are great players and made us (Msians) proud. Msia Boleh...!!!
I vaguely remember that during one Thomas Cup match, Ardy B. Wiranata came back from 1-14 to actually level the score when playing either Foo or Rashid. I forgot who won the match
Arhh...these could be the match I was mentioning? An excellent match which is still in my mind until now...although honestly I forgot who won the match.
If my memory serves me right, yes, this is the game. I glued on the TV screen for the match and if I'm not mistaken, it lasted more than 1hr . I think FooKK won but Ardy was a fighter.
Well, there's olympic to target on. lets hope the jalur gemilang can do well. Again, its all mental from now on. The coaches has already given all the have. rgds
I think Ardy was the first MS during TC 1992 (he was playing Rashid). If I'm not wrong, the second MS was Alan.
About KKK/TBH: my guess First thing first: if any of the current MD pairs around the world can reach the level of Ricky/Rexy, it got to be KKK/TBH. No other pair has any chance. Then summary of my view: Both KKK and TBH are still young, in the sense that they still do not know themselves (regarding badminton of course). The recent drop of performance is due to both of them trying to play better. Fans and coaches should be patient. Rexy should remember that KKK/TBH is for 2012, not 2008. Now my guess/analysis. TBH started to play elite badminton at the young age of 19, and it seemed all so easy -- these "great pairs" were like paper tigers, they were soooo weak! There seemed to be an infinity of possibilities lying ahead of him regarding how to play even better badminton. Consequently and not surprisingly, he lost himself. Why KKK and TBH seem not in harmony on court now? When they started to pair, the roles are clear: KKK is the leader. But after they had convincingly beaten almost all the top MD pairs, it is inevitable that TBH started to have his own point of view about the game, and would not simply follow KKK's leadership. Now we have two egos clashing, neither is accepting the role the other assigns. No wonder the performance dropped. But this is a good thing. This is a necessary preparation stage for their leap to an even higher level. When they have learned enough from failures, both KKK and TBH will know the limits of their abilities and more importantly how to use their abilities. Then they will reach a higher level of harmony, like that between Ricky/Rexy and Tony/Candra. And they will be a truly formidable pair.
Interesting "guess" analysis.. ..i would somewhat agree, ye333..IMO, KKK **should be** the leader (mentally & attitude) of the 2, because of his age/older and him being a bit more experience..
A bit off topic-Hmm, good recap.. (rest of abedeng's comprehensive acct. of BAM's history snipped for brevity-thanks btw).. ..So, in your opinion, what could be the underlying factor in M'sia's badminton "unstable" (if that's the right word) history?? Is it simply leadership??..
KKK/TBH is in another transition period. They need to fine tune their mentality on court. Personally they dont have any problem with each other.
Whatever it is, let just hopes they will stay focus on the task ahead.. It is not easy to find such an exciting pairs nowadays
Hey ants...yesterday on ESPN KKK said that he's still figuring out the problems with his partnership with TBH....can clarify that?
Now, both KKK and TBH should have equal say Now, both KKK and TBH should have equal say. What I've read from Rexy's comments (if I am not wrong) is that, KKK does not appreciate more of TBH's strength, but worries more about TBH's weakness. No wonder TBH is not satisfied. TBH does not have vulnerable weakness anyway.