KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will allow Mohd Hafiz Hashim to join their fold for the first time to give him a final chance to revive his career.
Hafiz wants to leave Nusa Mahsuri after nine years with the professional club but has run into contract problem. The BAM want him to sort out the problems before they take him on board.
The BAM also made it clear that Hafiz would not get any preferential treatment and the 2003 All-England champion will have to adhere to the rules that govern all the other national players.
Hafiz is not the only national team player under a review.
Yesterday, the BAM also decided that they would review the performances of all the players in the national set-up, including those in the back-up and junior squads.
The new teams will be named before the Beijing Olympics and all the coaches are required to submit their recommendations by the end of next month.
BAM president Datuk Nadzmi Mohd Salleh said that Hafiz met him after the Thomas Cup Finals in Jakarta last month and asked for a place in their national set-up.
“He has not been doing well of late but Hafiz is a talented player. He is interested to join the BAM and we welcome him. But he has to solve some of his problems first,” said Nadzmi after chairing the back-to-back exco and coaching and training committee meetings in Bukit Kiara here yesterday.
The future of Hafiz as a player of the national team hung in the balance, especially after a recent spate of poor results in international tournaments. He lost to unheralded Japanese players in the early rounds of the Indonesian Open last week and the ongoing Thai Open.
Earlier, Hafiz voiced his intention to join another professional club, KLRC Bhd, but it did not work out for him.
“Hafiz has to have a clean cut from his club (Nusa) if he wants to join the BAM. We do not want to be entangled in any legal problem.”
“We are willing to take him in but he has to make the initiative to make his way back to top. The system in BAM is such that an under-performing player will be dropped.”
Nadzmi added that they did not want to wait after the Beijing Games to name their new set of players for the future.
“Except for the Olympic-bound players, all the others will be reviewed. The coaches will have to identify players with potential and drop those who had been stagnant. We do not want to waste our time with players without potential,” he said.
“After the Beijing Games, we will work immediately with these players, especially those from the Project 2010-12 squad. We are aware that there is a lack of talent in the men’s singles department and we will have to find ways to churn out more quality players.
“We will decide later on whether there would be any change to the coaching set-up and the structure of the training programme.”
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