The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is passing through a critical phase as currently there is no worthy successor of the top player Lee Chong Wei but the shuttler has highlighted five players who have potential to become world beaters.
The London Olympics silver medallist Chong Wei, who has been positioned at number two in Men’s Singles world ranking, expressed that it is a tough task for BAM to replace him as there is no shuttler who could challenge the world.
The 29-year-old Chong Wei pointed five potential shuttlers to life Malaysian flag at international stage and these shuttlers are Liew Daren, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, Chan Kwong Beng, Misbun Ramdan and Chong Wei Feng.
The Malaysian mega star wants all shuttlers to give their best in training and improve in every department of the game in order to become potential contenders for title in major international tournaments.
While talking about the difficulty that BAM faces to find his replacement, Chong Wei said that even China, Indonesia and Denmark are also facing that same problem to find worthy successors of Lin Dan, Peter Hoeg Gade and Taufik Hidayat.
He stated, “Even China have difficulty trying to find a ‘second’ Lin Dan despite having a population of more than one billion while Malaysia only have a population of 28 million.”
He further added, “Indonesia and Denmark also find it hard to replace Taufik Hidayat and Peter-Gade Christensen.”
Chong Wei also put emphasis on sending junior shuttlers in different international tournaments which will help them to gain valuable experience and to become one of the finest shuttlers in the world.
The Malaysian shuttler has a plan to attend Lin Dan’s wedding which is set to be held in the next month. He will leave for China if he gets free from Japan Open Super Series 2012 earlier to the wedding.
He said, “I’m hoping for an early final so I can fly from Tokyo to Beijing.”
Chong Wei wants all five Singles shuttlers to do their best and replace him but it requires a lot of hard work and dedication while setting a high target to achieve.