The Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) or the 2022 Asian Team Badminton Championships will lose its excitement. A number of powerful countries decided to withdraw from the event.
According to the plan, the 2022 Asian Team Badminton Championships will take place at the Setia City Convention Center of Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. The BATC tournament will take place from 15 to 20 February 2022.
The world’s badminton giant, China, will not take part. Taiwan and Thailand have also taken similar steps. In fact, BATC is a qualifying event for the 2022 Thomas and Uber Cups.
The semifinalists for the 2022 BATC in the men’s and women’s sectors will automatically qualify for the 2022 Thomas and Uber Cup finals. The mentioned tournament will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, 8-15 May 2022.
The three strong countries made this decision because they were worried about the soaring number of Covid-19 cases. They don’t want the pandemic to hit their squad.
The organizers of the 2022 BATC said that China first made sure not to take part. The country is concentrating on implementing strict health protocols and the government’s lockdown. Without China, Taiwan and Thailand, only eight countries will participate in BATC 2022. Besides Malaysia which is the host, there are Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Kazakhstan.
At BATC 2020 in Manila, Malaysia failed to become the champion of the men’s sector of BATC 2020. Only Cheam June Wei presented victory for Malaysia who had to settle for being runner-up because they lost 1-3. However, at the 2022 BATC, Malaysia is confirmed without Cheam who decided to leave the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) at the end of 2021. Now, Cheam has joined forces with world champion from Singapore, Loh Kean Yew to train with Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalist, Viktor Axelsen (Denmark), in Dubai.
Malaysia is led by Lee Zii Jia at the 2022 BATC. The men’s singles number seven is accompanied by Ng Tze Yong, Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin, Leong Jun Hao, Lim Chong King and Jacky Kok Jing Hong for the men’s singles sector. From the men’s doubles sector, Malaysia relies on the bronze medalists at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Aaron Chia / Soh Wooi Yik. They became leaders for Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and Man Wi Chong/Tee Kai Wun.
As for the women’s sector, Japan is the defending champion. In the BATC 2020 final, the country won 3-0 over South Korea.
