Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s World No. 8 men’s doubles player Teo Ee Yi posted on his social media last Friday questioning why the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) omitted his name from the 2022 Indonesia Masters registration, which is a Super 500 event scheduled to take place at Istora Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 24 to 29 January 2023.
In the list of participating players announced by the Badminton World Federation, Teo’s name was not listed next to his partner, Ong Yew Sin. Instead, a player called Chee Yik Shen was named as Ong’s partner.
Teo was questioning how could BAM make such a low-level mistake.
“I just want to play the game, is it really that difficult? It’s obvious whether or not it’s a careless mistake or intentional error,” said Teo in his post.
“Why does this kind of thing only happen to independent players instead of BAM players? Aren’t we all representing Malaysia?”
“Next year’s tournaments are important to us, how could a mistake be committed at this moment?”
“This is not something that can be solved by just saying sorry, or refunding our withdrawal fees.”
On Monday, BAM’s Secretary General Kenny Goh explained that it was in fact a mistake made by one of their staff. Goh said that BAM had already held a meeting with Teo Ee Yi/Ong Yew Sin and they were in discussions to find the best solution.
“After an internal investigation was conducted, it was indeed a mistake by one of our staff members. The staff member also admitted that he was at fault,” said Goh
“We have already met with Ee Yi-Yew Sin to explain the real situation to them. Now, we are in discussions to find the best solution,” added Goh.
Goh said that BAM had submitted an appeal to BWF regarding the problem, but BWF had refused to allow any updates or changes made to participants at the 2023 Indonesia Masters.
