Failure at the recent Philippines Sea Games has led to the resignation of basketball coach Brian Lester.
On Saturday, the Australian tendered his resignation letter as coach of the national men’s team. He also quit the NS Matrix team.
The 68-year-old Lester yesterday made known his reason for leaving the national team.
“Firstly I resigned as the national coach due to our results at the Sea Games. We were targeting a medal but we just fell short,” he said.
Lester, who also coached Malaysia from 1995-1996 and 2003-2006, said: “As a coach, I feel responsible for the performances of the team even though team captain (Mak) Lok Seng and senior (Teo) Kok Hou were both unavailable to injury.
“We had eight players with no Sea Games experience and that was reflected in the result.”
“As I was also responsible for Matrix on top of the national team, it was only right that I resigned from that role as well,” added Lester who has led the Negri Sembilan outfit to four straight Agong Cup championships.
Malaysia targeted a medal in Manila but fell short as they missed out on making the semi-finals from Group B.
They started off with a 92-101 defeat to Indonesia before blowing out Cambodia 100-64.
But the team’s lack of depth was badly exposed in their must-win tie against Thailand which they lost 69-80 and they were later dealt another blow when they were beaten 75-89 by Singapore in the fifth place playoff.
Lester’s departure has left the national team in the lurch with Malaysia down to compete in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers next month.
Malaysia, who came through a pre-qualifying event, are drawn in Group B with Asian giants China, Japan and Taiwan.
Lester’s assistant coaches, Filipino Jeff Viernes and Lee Kheng Tian will take charge of the away games in Taiwan on Feb 21 and China on Feb 24.