THE dispute between the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and Malaysia’s top men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia could affect the focus of the players in the national badminton camp, said BAM national coaching director Wong Choong Hann.

However, Wong stressed that he and the coaching staff at BAM will ensure that the matter does not jeopardise the training of players by focusing fully on the talent-building process.

He said the attention of the coaching staff so far is not transfixed on Lee alone.

“Players may get distracted but we have been given the responsibility to build all the players and when Zii Jia was in our care, he also received our full commitment,” he said after finishing the Federal Territory chapter of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay in Putrajaya today.

“This does not mean we overlooked others and it is not as if that it is only now we shift our responsibilities or scrutiny to other players… we continue to work as usual.”  

On Friday, BAM made a stern decision not to register Lee for any international tournament for a period of two years starting from January 18, following the 2021 All-England champion’s decision to exit BAM and move on as an independent player.

To date, Lee has not made any statement regarding the BAM penalty of a two-year exclusion (BWF rules state all entries in international tourneys must go through the national association).

On talk that Ng Tze Yong will replace Lee as the main men’s singles card, Wong said the Johor-born player should be given more time.

“We don’t want to pressure him to reach the level that we want, because understandably, he has a direction, ambition and time frame to improve. So we will continue to groom and give him a fair amount of time to improve his performance,” he said. – Bernama, January 23, 2022.