THE one sport that Malaysia has been rated among the world’s best for almost 70 years is badminton and only badminton.
As early as 1950, Wong Peng Soon became the first Asian to win the All-England men’s title and he repeated it three more times, the following two years and again in 1955.
Google dubs Johor-born Peng Soon as one of the greatest badminton players of all time. Sharing the world beating stage with him were Ooi Teck Hock, Ong Poh Lim and Datuk Eddy Choong in the early days when Malaysia and Indonesia were the top two badminton powers before China joined the league of badminton playing nations.
There have been other home-grown badminton stars who came after them. They kept the nation’s flag flying high the following decade or two such as the Tan brothers – Aik Huang and Aik Mong – and Datuk Punch Gunalan to name but a few.
In the doubles, the older generation cannot forget the formidable pair of Datuk Tan Yee Khan and Datuk Ng Boon Bee, who also took the badminton arena by storm.
These stars held court and became Malaysian heroes in the days when the game was played in the old scoring format.
The older generations who followed badminton cannot forget the 15-match point scoreline before it was changed to the current 21 points. And although it was set at 15 points, badminton was a much more taxing affair then because a player could only score points if he or she held service.
Sometimes there would be as many as 10 service changes with the scoreline remaining unchanged and this is something the young players born after the World Badminton Federation changed the scoring system did not know about.
Modern badminton is so much more exciting to watch as a player scores points irrespective of who holds the service.
Another innovative change is that a player will hold the service as long as he or she scores points, unlike in the old game when service changed hands at a certain fixed point.
Fast forward, this bit of historical backdrop brings me to the retirement from badminton of Datuk Lee Chong Wei, undoubtedly our greatest athlete, who finally called it a day two weeks ago after 19 years of blood, sweat and tears on the world stage.
There is no doubt that Chong Wei at 36 as the oldest player on the world circuit would labour on if not for his nose cancer.
He has given more than his all in an amazing career that has brought him financial rewards perhaps beyond his wildest dreams.
But despite all the accolades that Chong Wei has amassed, the most prestigious prize any athlete could hope to win eluded him, an Olympic Games gold medal.
He came close to winning it not once but three times, back to back in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics when he qualified for the final but lost twice to Lin Dan and once to Chen Long, both from China.
Similarly, he failed three times to win the second biggest prize, the World Championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015, also ending up with silver medals.
These failures somewhat dented Chong Wei’s unassailable record of being World No. 1 for a total of 348 weeks, including 199 consecutive weeks from August 2008 till June 2012.
I have been following closely the developments in badminton for over 50 years and consider myself qualified to comment on why I think he failed to deliver the Olympic gold medal or the World Championship title.
Compared to Lin Dan, Chong Wei seemed to focus on his No. 1 World ranking and for this, he competed in many more tournaments on the international circuit on any given year.
Lin Dan on the other hand, has been more selective and played in fewer competitions which was why he doesn’t seem bothered or rattled that he’s not World No. 1.
It’s obvious that this strategy paid off. There were times when he was even rated as low as 7th or 8th but when playing against World No. 1 Chong Wei, more often than not, Lin Dan would prevail.
In Lin Dan’s reckoning, never mind he’s not No. 1 but what’s more important he’ll beat Chong Wei, any way.
Fans could see this in the three Olympic finals between Chong Wei and Lin Dan (twice) and Chen Long and at the World Championship where due to playing in too many competitions, Chong Wei ended up physically drained.
There’s also no doubt among die-hard badminton fans and pundits that Lin Dan, with five World Championship titles and two Olympic golds, is the finest shuttler of all time.
There’s nothing like watching Lin Dan and Chong Wei battling it out in fiery matches that could easily be described as badminton at its finest.
But surprisingly to Chong Wei, the most memorable battle with Lin Dan was not at the Olympics, World Championship or the All-England. He said his most epic battle was the 2006 Malaysian Open final in Kuching when Lin Dan was only one match point from victory as he led 20-13 in the rubber.
Amazingly, in front of the home crowd, Chong Wei pulled off a stunning comeback by winning seven straight points to level 20-20 before winning 23-21.
The saddest part about his exit after such an incredible career is that moving forward, it shall mark Malaysia’s eclipse from badminton on the world stage for some time to come.
We are not going to produce another player of his pedigree in the foreseeable future.
The nation has been over-dependent on him to win the top titles and for all the effort and resources put up to groom a successor, there is no one in sight by a long shot.
Where did we go wrong? Former Badminton Association of Malaysia president Tengku Tan Srì Mahaleel Tengku Ariff says because of complex variables there is no simple answer to this.
“First, there is a disconnect between council members and officials. Apart from the coaches, there is really no top-notch player who can understand the top 10% of what makes a top player like Chong Wei or Lin Dan ... they play average badminton and not having this knowledge, it will be difficult to interact with coaches and players,” he told me.
“Then the organisation and methods. If you ask who is responsible for players, it will be difficult to give a single person. And you have methods – with different coaches, each brings his own method, if you are lucky you win, if not you lose.
“During my time, we used a lot of sports science and we had three China coaches but now we have none.”
The last time Malaysia won the Thomas Cup, the symbol of world team badminton supremacy, was 27 years ago!
And with Chong Wei out, Malaysia’s hopes of winning its first ever Olympic gold medal will remain a dream.
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