The Champion Duo Arif-Nur Azriyn cut off by Badminton Association of Malaysia

Thomas Cup champions Mohd Arif Abdul Latif and his partner Nur Azriyn Ayob have been cut off from the national men’s doubles team in order to give the younger players some space.

Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) doubles head coach Cheah Soon Kit declared that more doubles players are going to be cut down.

Arif expressed his disappointment about the whole incident and felt that the decision was absolutely unfair.

It has only been two months since the ace shuttlers have been invited by the BAM to join in and they started gaining sponsors and were prepping up to start it afresh with the national body.

Initially, the players were signed till July but the body cut them away and asked them to submit their resignations.

 “We have been asked to give our resignations as BAM wants to focus on players under 21.

“I am willing to submit the letter but I’m just disappointed with the way they put forward the whole thing. If only this had to be done why did they ask us to join them in the first place?

“We had to settle matters with our sponsors. I, at least had a chance to play the Thomas Cup squad but Azriyn did not even get to play in any tournament under the BAM” said Arif.

Arif thinks that they’ve not been treated fair and the badminton world cannot agree more. He also added saying, when I asked my coach (Paulus Firman) he said he was as shocked as we are.

“I’ll move on but won’t give up on Badminton. Instead I’ll will play at the Singapore Open from July 17-22 with Azriyn” said the 28-year-old shuttler.

The duo would be playing as independent players in the Singapore open as directed by the BAM.

 “We’ll continue to do our best and bring honors to the country. We’re proud to be playing for Malaysia” added Arif.

Talking about the same, coach Soon Kit, who was quite supportive of Arif’s selection for the Thomas Cup squad, said that it was a collective decision and he had to follow the procedures of BAM by shrinking his 28-member team.

He continued saying he would be dropping more players soon and keeping only the best.