National junior squash coach Andrew Cross believes that the talent pool within Malaysia has the potential and ability to produce world-class talents.
Andrew, who recently led the national juniors to the CIMB Foundation Asian Junior Team Championships title, expressed his delight at the achievement, claiming that his prodigies did exceptionally well to eliminate the hoodoo of having lost the tournament for six years until their recent triumph.
“They have done really well, and they finally closed the gap. We just need consistency now,” Andrew Cross told FourthOfficial.com
Co-incidentally, the last time Malaysia won the title, Low Wee Wern was part of the national junior set-up and Andrew believes that current juniors have the potential to reach the world-class level of Wee Wern in the future.
“Low Wee Wern, who played a massive part in us winning the 2009 Asian Championships, was the best mover in the team and she had a natural talent.
“Thing is, we still have a lot of junior players who can get to her level as well. Some of them are still so young but we have a lot of time to build them up,” he added.
The Englishman went on to suggest that 13 year-old Aifa Azman, who was the fifth Malaysian girl to clinch the prestigious British Junior Open title, has the potential of being able to grow significantly, alongside Tan Yan Xin and S.Sivasangari.
“In order for us to reach that level, we have to expose them to more international events in order to give them a good bench to be able to cope with pressure and expectation.”
However, Andrew was quick to reaffirm that comparing these kids to Nicol David would be nonsensical, claiming that Nicol’s achievements are not only due to her hardwork but also sheer natural talent and ability.
“She moves like a dream, she can pick up anything, she creates so much pressure for the opponents etc. It is very difficult for the other girls to be able to keep up.
“The more realistic comparison would be Wee Wern, but then again, it still takes a lot of hard work.”
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