Agus urges PBSI to name team manager soon

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)