KUALA LUMPUR — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) can’t seem to win either way — send top senior players to the SEA Games and critics cry foul for not giving youngsters a chance; send an all-junior squad and they’ll be slammed for coming home empty-handed.
That was the view of former BAM high-performance director Datuk James Selvaraj, who said it was “impossible” for the national body to satisfy everyone when selecting its line-up for the Bangkok SEA Games in December.
“BAM cannot please everyone. Whatever the decision, there will always be people who criticise them,” James told Scoop.
“These are the same people who will make noise if BAM sends an inexperienced squad and ends up without a medal.”
While he supported the move to field Malaysia’s strongest team, James said it would have been ideal if more junior players were included alongside the seniors.
Earlier this week, BAM announced a 20-member team for both the team and individual events, led by newly crowned mixed doubles world champions Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, world No. 2 women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah, and two-time Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
The squad also includes other top players such as Man Wei Chong, Tee Kai Wun, Leong Jun Hao and Justin Hoh. Given the team’s depth, James agreed that the target should be nothing less than three gold medals.
“That must be the target with a squad as strong as this,” he said.
“Of course, it would have been better if, for every top player in the team, there was one junior player to experience the pressure and gain exposure.”
Host nation Thailand has also named a formidable team, while Indonesia is expected to follow suit.
At the previous edition in Cambodia, Malaysia failed to win a gold medal in badminton, settling for two silvers and four bronzes. — October 18, 2025