Bad timing: Misbun Sidek (left) was relieved from his duties with immediate effect following his players’ poor showing at the recent Asian junior meet.
PETALING JAYA: Never take sides when you do not have a complete picture of the incident.
This was the view expressed by former great Datuk James Selvaraj following the dismissal of Datuk Misbun Sidek from his position as the national junior singles coaching director.
Even though Misbun has a contract that runs until the end of this year, he was relieved from his duties with immediate effect following the poor showing of his players at the recent Asian junior meet.
Boys’ doubles pair Bryan Goonting-Low Han Chen were the only representatives to reach the quarter-finals.
The junior squad also returned home empty-handed from the World Junior Championships in Santander, Spain, last October.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have been criticised for taking such a tough stance with less than two months before the world junior meet from Sept 25-Oct 8 in Washington, United States.
James, however, has urged the public to put themselves in the shoes of both parties and not jump to conclusions without a clear picture of the situation.
“If BAM have informed Misbun that he will be dismissed if the players did not perform, then the former have every right to do so as they have warned him earlier,” said James.
“In BAM’s eyes, I believe they have been wanting results but have been unable to get them from Misbun, so they have no choice but to ask him to leave.
“But anyone who receives this type of termination will be upset because the world junior championships is only less than two months away.
“I’m not sure about this but maybe they should’ve kept him until the world meet, but they felt they could do without Misbun so they asked him to leave.
“You must weigh the points on both sides to determine whether it is fair or not.
“It is very difficult to justify the situation right now, whether it’s right or wrong, but only BAM and Misbun will understand what happened.
“As a former player, coach and coaching director, I believe BAM are right if Misbun was warned beforehand, but it is not correct if the former dismissed the coach without any warning or discussion before the outing.
Without Misbun in the picture, the national junior shuttlers will train together with the seniors ahead of their stint in Washington under coaches Hendrawan, Datuk Tey Seu Bock and James Chua.
