BANGKOK: The BA of Malaysia (BAM) may revert back to having a technical director following the failure to achieve targets in both the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup.
The targets were semi-finals for the men’s team and quarter-finals for the women’s team.
On Thursday, the national Thomas Cup team lost 3-1 to Indonesia, while the women’s team did not go beyond the group stage.
BAM president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria said the association will re-look the current structure in order to move forward.
"We accept that we have failed to achieve our target, so it is important for us to conduct a post-mortem to see how we can improve in the coming editions.
"I believe we have to focus on our youngsters based on what we saw here. If we continue to rely on our old guards, we will not be able to take the next step forward.
"Having said that, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Lee Chong Wei, who has constantly delivered for the team. At 36, he has shown that he is still our best player.
"In our match against Denmark, he defeated World No 1 Viktor Axelsen and then repeated his feat in the tie against Indonesia when he saw off Anthony (Sinisuka) Ginting.
"It is time now for us to invest in our younger players, those below the age of 22 to prepare for the coming editions.
"I don't know what would be best, perhaps we might look back at having a technical director, but this will all depend on our post-mortem," said Norza.
Denmark's Morten Frost served as BAM’s technical director before the Dane quit late last year citing personal reasons.
Norza also took the opportunity to praise shuttlers Lee Zii Jia, Leong Jun Hao, Aaron Chia and Teo Ee Yi for their spirited displays throughout the competition.
"The defeats were all very close, and these players showed us that we need to start focusing on them. Unfortunately, they lacked experience when playing against some of the higher ranked players.
"But they managed to give these top players a good fight, dragging the matches to the deciding game. They just couldn't handle the pressure well," Norza added.
For most of the shuttlers, they will return to regular training before shifting their focus towards the Malaysia Open next month, the World Championships in Nanjing, China in July and the Asian Games in Indonesia in August.