KUALA LUMPUR: The days of depending on Lee Chong Wei in the Thomas Cup are finally over.
Malaysia have taken a huge gamble by dropping Chong Wei from the squad to the Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad, India, from Feb 15-21. The tournament serves as the qualifier for the Thomas Cup Finals in Kunshan, China, from May 15-22.
This will be the first time that Chong Wei will not be featuring in the premier team event since 2004 in Indonesia.
Without world No. 5 Chong Wei, there is a big possibility that Malaysia may miss the cut for the Finals for the first time.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) deputy president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria said that they wanted Chong Wei to focus on qualifying for his last Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
He also wants the younger players to step up to the plate.
“We’re not including Chong Wei because we want him to prepare for the Olympic Games. Chong Wei feels the same,” said Norza.
“This is the time for Malaysian badminton to rely on the next generation of players.”
Without Chong Wei, the next top five Malaysian singles players are Chong Wei Feng (world No. 41), Zulfadli Zulkiffli (No. 42), Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (No. 51), Soo Teck Zhi (No. 56) and Goh Soon Huat (No. 59).
Norza said that BAM might even withdraw all Olympic-bound shuttlers from the Thomas Cup squad, which means the country’s top pair Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong will also miss out on the team competition.
He said that they would make a decision on this at Friday’s coaching and training committee meeting.
According to the Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC), 14 teams will take part in the men’s team competition and 12 in the women’s event for the Uber Cup.
Only four Asian countries will get selected from these qualifiers to play in the Finals. With hosts China and defending champions Japan having confirmed their tickets for the Finals, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan are set to battle it out for the four Thomas Cup spots.
The closing date to submit the team list for the Thomas Cup qualifiers is Jan 29.-thestar
