Agus urges PBSI to name team manager soon
JAKARTA (JP): The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) vice chairman, Agus Wirahadikusumah, said the organization must appoint a team manager for the 2000 Thomas and Uber Cups soon.
Agus was referring to the limited time to prepare the team, especially for the Uber Cup team which they would have to compete in the qualifying round in New Delhi in February.
"We have to learn from the 1998 Thomas and Uber Cups events when we only had six weeks to prepare. We retained the Thomas Cup but we failed to bring home the Uber Cup," said Agus, who was the 1998 team manager, over the weekend.
Indonesia managed to bring home the prestigious Thomas Cup despite the political situation in the country when riots erupted after four students were shot to death on the Trisakti University campus in Grogol, West Jakarta.
"The appointment of the team manager must be completed as soon as possible because the person will have to arrange planning programs and proposals prior to the event. PBSI can't compare the Thomas and Uber Cups preparation with the Grand Prix series tournaments. The appointment and the preparation must start in January," said Agus, a two-star general who is now chief of the Wirabuana military command overseeing South Sulawesi.
Agus said PBSI must be transparent in the selection of shuttlers.
"PBSI must stage a transparent selection and set criteria for players to join the Thomas and Uber Cups teams. Officials must not pick players just based on likes and dislikes."
Agus said the team manager must be able to raise the spirit of togetherness in the team.
"The team manager must be able to boost shuttlers motivation and spirit as we are facing a completely different situation as other countries want to take the cup from us. Shuttlers must be able to exploit their strength and take advantage of their opponents' weaknesses," he said.
"Shuttlers and the team manager must realize that they have a great responsibility to retain the Thomas Cup and bring home the Uber Cup."
However, he was pessimistic about the Uber Cup team's chances of winning the championships.
"We don't have good players now after Susi Susanti resigned and Mia Audina moved to the Netherlands," he said.
Susi, the 1992 Olympics gold medalist, and Mia, the 1996 Olympics silver medalist, joined the team in 1998.
"Our women's shuttlers must work much harder than before because technically and physically they are far behind the Chinese, South Koreans and Danish shuttlers," he said.
The Indonesian women's singles and doubles performances have not been improving recently. Singles players Lidya Djaelawidjaja and Cindana Hartono Kusuma showed poor performance in the Grand Prix Finals in Brunei Darussalam earlier this month. Doubles Etty Tantri and Cynthia Tuwankotta managed to reach the semifinals but bowed out to world number one Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China.
Pressure
PBSI has been under pressure due to the women's poor form but the organization has ignored the pressure, including from demands to replace the women's singles and doubles coaches, as stated by Agus after the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and the 1999 Sudirman Cup and World Championships in Copenhagen in May.
Agus expected PBSI to seek help from Indonesian embassies overseas to oversee the preparation of countries participating in the Thomas and Uber Cups.
"We really have to utilize our sports intelligence abroad. I understand PBSI has received information from a participating country and I hope officials will seriously study the information," he said.
PBSI also has to stage simulations in the country as a warm up for the biennial event, the final of which will take place in Kuala Lumpur in May. In 1998, both teams had simulations in both Denpasar and Jakarta. (yan)