KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign coaches who intend to replace Jeremy Gan and help chief men’s doubles coach Cheah Soon Kit can forget about such plans as BAM will only welcome local coaching expertise.
This was made known by BAM president Datuk Seri Mohamaed Norza Zakaria who stated that Malaysia has local coaching expertise that can coach, guide, and lead the men’s doubles players.
“Local coaches are the ones who better understand our players. They also know of the strengths and weaknesses as well as the good and bad of our players.
“So for the time being, let us focus on the matter at hand (finding Jeremy’s replacement) first,” he said when met on the sidelines of the signing ceremony between BAM and Daihatsu along with Perodua Malaysia yesterday.
He explained that there are many coaches of calibre as well as Malaysian legends who are willing to come on board with BAM.
“Whoever the coach that is hired must deliver on Soon Kit’s Key Performance Index (KPI).
“I admire Yap Kim Hock and Datuk Seri Jalani Sidek who have expressed their willingness to join us to train the national squad.
“But as I have said before, the ball is in Soon Kit’s court, as only he can get things moving forward.
“He will pick the right coach, and he will speak and hold talks with some of our top former players before making an offer to the right man for the job,” he said.
Norza added that they still have yet to finalise the position of national squad analyst, even though Jalani has expressed his interest in taking up such a post.
“Our focus now is to get a men’s doubles coach. For now Soon Kit is working on finding a replacement as soon as possible, and we do not have to wait until Jeremy’s three month notice period is over. I agreed with him on hiring a local coach for the job.
“There are 22 players, 11 pairs in the men’s doubles squad and we are also weighing our options if we need to appoint more than one replacement for Jeremy.
“What’s most important is the successful candidate must have a good understanding and is able to work well with the national squad,” he said.
Translated from Harian Metro