Taufik puts aside dispute to focus on All England
Taufik puts aside dispute to focus on All England
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's top shuttler Taufik Hidayat will put
aside his differences with the Badminton Association of Indonesia
(PBSI) to focus on winning the All England next month.
"Coach Agus Dwi Santoso has announced that PBSI will send me
to the All England and I want to concentrate on reaching my goal
with limited preparation," Taufik told The Jakarta Post by phone.
"However, I can't guarantee that I will win the event
considering the limited time for preparation. PBSI closed the
training center for two months and I only have three weeks left
to reach my peak form.
"I also still have to adapt to the new coach and it won't be
that easy."
Taufik had a disagreement with PBSI after the organization
dropped his coach Mulyo Handoyo and only hired Agus for the men's
singles.
PBSI chairman Subagyo Hadisiswoyo said the reason for dropping
Mulyo was due to his inability to stop Taufik from criticizing
PBSI and because of a personal problem.
The 19-year-old Taufik, world number four, had threatened to
quit the national squad and skip the All England, but he changed
his mind after meeting Mulyo on Thursday evening.
Mulyo turned down PBSI's offer to coach Taufik only until the
All England in Birmingham, England, from March 7 to March 11.
"I have to turn down the offer because it was not good enough.
It doesn't provide any certainty for my career because the
contract is too short. It would give less than a month to prepare
him for All England," he told the Post by phone.
"Besides, it would be too great a burden for Taufik to perform
well in the event because he has to win. It would be bad for him
if I accepted the offer, despite it being at his request.
"We decided to turn down the offer unless PBSI agreed to
extend the contract until the World Championships (in Seville,
Spain, in May)."
Taufik said he had started practicing with men's doubles
players and had been supervised by Indonesian Badminton Center
training director Christian Hadinata.
"I'm not ready to be coached by Mas Agus, although I don't
have any problems with him. Sometimes I feel jealous of the other
shuttlers who are training with him. I don't know why this
happened to me.
"I feel sad. I want to start training like the others but I'm
still confused about the whole thing."
Separately, PBSI secretary-general Leo Chandra Wiranata said
he had prepared letter of appointment for Mulyo for his All
England assignment.
"If everything is OK, Pak Subagyo can sign the letter right
away and Mulyo can join the center again," he said.
"But we'll have to forget it if no deal is reached."
Leo also said PBSI decided to call 36 more juniors to be
tested in the center. Earlier, PBSI named 16 shuttlers to be
automatically admitted to the center and 10 shuttlers to be
tested.
"Sixty-two juniors will be tested. We expect to run the one-
week tests next week starting Monday," he said. "We may also
increase the number of juniors in the center from 21 to 24. But
it will depend on the test results."
Leo denied the accusation that PBSI was being inconsistent in
its decision concerning the junior players.
"It's not that PBSI is being inconsistent in its decision. We
try to accommodate all aspirations aired by our chapters. That's
why we called additional junior shuttlers," he said.
"Besides, we need more shuttlers on the junior squad because
we have to check their potential carefully. We can still change
their event from double to single or the other way around," he
continued. (nvn/yan)