KUALA LUMPUR: After weeks of speculation, national men’s doubles shuttler Koo Kien Keat finally handed in his resignation letter to the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
On Friday, BAM deputy president Datuk Norza Zakaria confirmed that Kien Keat, 28, had submitted the letter to BAM’s office after his training session at Stadium Juara in Bukit Kiara.
The signs were all there for Kien Keat to call it quits when he failed to turn up for training after the Chinese New Year break. He went for an eye treatment on Monday and after a few days of recuperating, he returned for training just two days ago.
Norza, however, did not elaborate on the content of Kien Keat’s letter but said that it would help the BAM in making a decision on the future of the seven-year partnership of Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong.
National No. 1 Kien Keat and Boon Heong had been under heavy fire for some time, and it escalated after their first-round defeat in the Malaysian Open at Putra Stadium in January.
Following the defeat and their constant failure to win any major tournaments since nailing the 2010 Malaysian Open, the BAM council then decided to withdraw their participation from all international tournaments.
It led to world No. 7 Kien Keat-Boon Heong being dropped for the German Open, starting in Mulheim on Wednesday, and the All-England in Birmingham from March 4-9.
“We wanted to make a decision on Koo and Tan after getting input on their fitness condition from the National Sports Institute (NSI). The NSI have given that input to the Corporate Skills and Research (CSR) headed by our president (Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff),” said Norza.
“With that input, we were ready to make a decision on them by the end of this month. But now Kien Keat has resigned. His decision will have bearing on our decision-making process,” added Norza, who is also the chairman of the joint BAM-NSI committee.
With the current turn of events, it looks like BAM have no choice but to let Kien Keat go, and find a new partner for Boon Heong.
For the record, Kien Keat-Boon Heong were the winners of the 2006 Asian Games, 2007 All-England and 2007 and 2010 Malaysian Open. They also reached the final of the 2010 World Championships in Paris.
