PETALING JAYA: Datuk Misbun Sidek has served the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) with a stinging drop shot three days after he was dismissed as the national junior singles coaching director.
Misbun is not accustomed to making a ruckus if he was sidelined but yesterday, he opened up and expressed his bitter disappointment over the manner of his dismissal, which he deemed was unfair during a press conference in Melawati yesterday.
The BAM decided to terminate Misbun’s contract with immediate effect although the coach has a deal that runs until end of this year.
He was harbouring hopes of one final opportunity to fix the damage by helping his charges do well at the World Junior Championships in Washington from Sept 25-Oct 8 following their below par performances at the recent Asian junior meet.
But it was not meant to be as the BAM had taken the hard stance to wield the axe after Malaysia’s failure to win any medals at the meet.
What made matters worse, according to Misbun, was that there was no chance for him to discuss with the management on his wish to complete his duties and guide the players at the World Juniors.
He was notified of the decision by BAM deputy president Datuk V. Subramaniam.
Misbun felt it would have been more proper if he had been informed of the decision directly from BAM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria as the latter was the one who met him personally and coaxed him to take up the role as the junior development director in 2020.
While Misbun was willing to take responsibility for the failure of the singles shuttlers at the Asian Junior Cham- pionships, he highlighted the fact that the doubles pairs also did not do well and it was not right to blame him solely for the debacle.
The junior doubles squad are helmed by national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky.
“I am extremely disappointed with the way the BAM had terminated my contract. I was notified by Datuk Subra that I don’t need to coach the players anymore and the decision was with immediate effect,” said Misbun, who was joined by his brother Datuk Jalani Sidek yesterday.
“My contract ends at the end of the year and I wanted to guide my players at the World Junior Championships to produce better results. But I did not get the opportunity at all to discuss anything with the management.
“I know we failed to achieve the KPI (key performance indicator) set by BAM at the Asian level but it doesn’t mean that they will also fail at the world juniors.
“We did not get good results in last year’s World Juniors (in Santender, Spain) but we managed to analyse the shortcomings and achieve improved results this year.
“It is also unfair that I am blamed for the entire failure as the doubles pairs also did not do well.
“I’m not going to dispute the decision made by BAM.
“If I had failed at the World Juniors, I would not have waited for BAM to terminate my contract. I would have tendered my resignation without being told.
“In the beginning I only had one boss – Tan Sri Norza. When they wanted me for this position, I went to his house to sign the contract, and now, when I’m not needed, they sent another official to inform me of the news,” said a frustrated Misbun.
“The initial plan was to have a four-year cycle until 2024 and then the 2024-2028 project which will be handled by me.
“However, the programmes have kept changing over the years and it is very difficult to continue producing results in a short span and with the interference of others.
“A coach should be given a free hand in running his programme and guiding players and one should be patient.
“Park Joo-bong is comfortable and successful in Japan having to constantly achieve results because their president gives him full authority to run his programme.”
Misbun, whose passion is coaching, said that he would not venture out of Malaysia although there have been offers abroad.
Having created world No. 1s like Rashid Sidek, Roslin Hashim, Datuk Lee Chong Wei and also having had a hand in helping current national No. 1 Lee Zii Jia earlier in his career as well as helping to groom Justin Hoh during his junior days, Misbun doesn’t see the need to coach on foreign soil.
“There have been offers but I’m a little patriotic. I will not consider any offers outside Malaysia. Why should I? I believe we can groom our own players into champions,” said Misbun. “I have not made a decision yet but I will continue coaching locally.”
Misbun is set to use his club Nusa Mahsuri as the base to continue coaching where he will have a free hand in handling his players.
