KUALA LUMPUR: Badminton legend Datuk Lee Chong Wei believes that Malaysia's dismal performance at the Petronas Malaysian Open was due to poor preparation ahead of the curtain raiser event for 2024.
Chong Wei, who was world number one, also questioned the conduct of several players who chose to vacation abroad during the Christmas period despite knowing that the tournament would begin on Jan 9.
He said excelling at the highest level requires nothing less than a high level of sacrifice from the players.
"This is a bad start to the year.
"I hope the players realise their responsibility after this, that they need to make sacrifices for their careers.
"I saw on social media how some players took vacations overseas despite knowing that the Malaysian Open begins on Jan 9. I'm not saying that you can't go on vacation but you have to look at the timing.
"They go on holiday and by the time they come back, there's only a few days left until the Malaysian Open. As a former player, I know that once you come back from holiday, you can't jump directly into intensive training.
"There are no short cuts. Players have to make sacrifices to achieve their dreams.
"In the past, I used to take just a day off for Chinese New Year. I'm not trying to talk about how good I was, but ask any coach I played under about how my conduct was. I knew that I had to make sacrifices in order to succeed," he told Berita Harian.
Chong Wei, who holds a record-breaking 12 Malaysian Open titles, drew comparisons with the attitude of players from China, Japan and South Korea.
He said those players remained committed to training even during festive seasons and in the end, they performed well in the Malaysian Open.
"I can tell you this. Players from China, South Korea and Japan, during Christmas and the new year, they didn't take any breaks, they focused on training. There were even Japan-based tournaments going on at the time.
"This Malaysian Open, we can clearly see which country's players performed well...
China, South Korea and Japan. The one who went on holiday all 'hancur' (did poorly).
"Yes, as human beings, we need rest and breaks but look at the timing. Once you've won the Olympic gold or retired, go ahead and vacation every day, no one's going to bother you," said Chong Wei, who has three Olympic silver medals.
Chong Wei said coaches and managers can only do so much to prepare the players for a tournament. The rest, he said, depends on the players themselves.
He said if the players do not understand their responsibility, then it will be difficult to achieve success.
"To win a tournament a year is easy. Maintaining that is difficult. The main thing is the players's desire and what they want.
"You can't become the world number one after winning one tournament. You have to win, seven, eight titles in a year, make the semis and then the final. To get that, players have to train and sacrifice.
"This year is an extremely important one because of the Olympics. I hope that these players realise that and rise again," he said.
Men's doubles team Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik were the only representatives from the national squad to make it to the quarter-finals before bowing out to South Korean world champions Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae, last night.
Malaysia's other hopefuls, including women's doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah and mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei were shown the exit in the first and second rounds, respectively.
Men's singles player Ng Tze Yong was only able to play for 13 minutes in the first round against Japan's Koki Watanabe before withdrawing due to injury.