The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) are hoping to get the services of the top men's singles shuttlers in the country, including Lee Zii Jia for the upcoming Thomas Cup (April 28-May 5).
At the national body's council meeting on Saturday, president Norza Zakaria referred to the recent Badminton Asia Team Championships which saw Malaysia reach the men's team final with their strongest line-up.
"We reached the final of that event because we had a formidable team. I believe all the top players will want to play at the Thomas Cup, be it Zii Jia, (Ng) Tze Yong and (Leong) Jun Hao.
"We are set to head in the right direction if we have our best players who are willing to fight for the country. Not many do get this opportunity, it is an honour to represent your country," said Norza.
Lee had earlier last week indicated through Team LZJ he may skip the biennial affair to focus on other events on the World Tour to improve his world ranking points.
But the Thomas Cup itself does offer ranking points which would help Lee's ranking if he does well against Viktor Axelsen or Lee Cheuk Yiu of Denmark and Hong Kong in the group stage.
Algeria are the other country together with Malaysia for the Thomas Cup.
The national team will be considerably weakened if Lee doesn't feature, especially with Ng racing against time to be fully fit to play, having undergone a spinal disc surgery not too long ago.
Thankfully, the men's doubles representation is not concern as there plenty of options to choose from with Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin and Choong Hon Jian-Haikal Nazri all in the mix.
The submission date for the Thomas Cup teams are on April 13.
Henry Larsson
Sun Apr 07 2024
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