Misbun not axing players yet

KUALA LUMPUR: National men's singles coach Misbun Sidek has no plans to trim down his squad despite admitting that some have failed to progress in terms of performance.

Misbun's response comes after Datuk Lee Chong Wei had hinted on Friday that several seniors would be dropped soon.

"I agree with Chong Wei, some of these players have definitely been very slow in terms of improving over the years.

"But I am not aware as there was no meeting or decision made to drop players.

"It was probably just a speculation from Chong Wei based on his personal observation.

"If anyone were to be dropped, I would be making the call. Right now, that is not happening," said Misbun at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) on Saturday.

Misbun, who joined the national fold mid last year, noted that players like former Asian junior champion Soo Teck Zhi, Soong Joo Ven, Chong Yee Han and Lim Chi Wing have remained stagnant.

"These players have shown good attitude during training but they just can't seem to deliver the desired results.

"Some have been in the national set up (BA of Malaysia) for so long, but they have failed to even win a small title.

"When I took over the singles department last year, it was my goal to turn bad players into good ones, so I did not give up on them.

"However, they have remained stagnant. At their age, they should already be regulars in the GP Gold and Super Series tournaments," added Misbun.

According to Misbun, the talent pool right now is not big enough, and these players are in fact there to help push younger players like Lee Zii Jia, Leong Jun Hao, Tan Jia Wei, Cheam June Wei and Sim Fong Hau.

"These seniors have got a role to play. If we drop them from the squad, who will the up-and-coming spar with?

"They can't spar with Chong Wei as the gap between them and the World No 7 is too big, and some of them can't even beat their seniors during training.

"Of course it is easy for people to say let's just drop this lot, but really it is not so easy. We only have 11 players in the men's singles department,” he added.

The other shuttler in the squad is Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin.