KUALA LUMPUR – Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has confirmed the release of Akademi Badminton Malaysia’s (ABM) high performance director Tim Jones.
“We confirmed that we have released ABM’s high performance director Tim Jones.
“While the decision was difficult, BAM felt the vision of attaining world class performance had fallen out of alignment and this decision was in the best interest of the organisation and our future direction.
“We would like to express gratitude to Jones for his contribution to BAM,” said BAM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria at a press conference after the body’s 78th annual general meeting at ABM in Bukit Kiara today.
Jones was appointed as the high-performance director of BAM in February of last year.
Speculation was rife that the British man was made a scapegoat for the national women’s team’s performance at the ongoing SEA Games in Cambodia.
Malaysia fielded a young squad and were humiliated 0-3 by the Philippines in the quarter-finals of the team competition which also led to ABM chief executive Michelle Chai’s resignation.
Norza denies that Jones was being made the fall guy for the poor performance in Phnom Penh.
“The termination of Jones’ contract is actually after a few sequences of events.
“Every time there’s poor performance by athletes in terms of preparation and performance, we have sent warnings and show cause letters to him. The defeat to the Philippines is the straw that broke the camel’s back for them (Michelle and Tim).
“After that defeat, Michelle had a press conference and reported back to BAM because we were just monitoring from behind. We have promised from the beginning that we will not interfere in the day-to-day operations of ABM,” Norza said.
When asked whether there will be changes to the coaching line-up, Norza said the BAM council has decided that action will be taken regarding some coaches within the line-up at ABM soon. – The Vibes, May 13, 2023
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