Women bowlers lack accuracy

Chief coach Holloway Cheah and bowler Shalin Zulkifli have been in the bowling business for a long, long time.

So, when they speak, you'd better listen.

And when they say that changes are needed from top to bottom to improve the quality of the national women's team, they must know what they are talking about.

Holloway said after the women failed to retain the Asian Games team title on Monday that changes were needed in training methods.

The team of Shalin, Esther Cheah, Zandra Aziela Ibrahim Hakimi, Sharon Koh, Zatil Iman Abdul Ghani and reserve Sin Li Jane settled for the bronze. It was the only medal won by the Malaysian women, with only the Masters event to be decided.

Holloway hoped changes would strengthen the bowlers' accuracy in getting strikes consistently.

"I am disappointed and we have to improve. Compared to the high-flying Koreans, we lacked accuracy and did not repeat as many good shots as we should have done.

"Even Singapore will pose a threat to us in the Southeast Asian Games (in Indonesia next year) based on its strong showing here. We need to look into our training methods," he said.

The 32-year-old Shalin, who has represented Malaysia in every Asiad since making a golden debut at the 1994 Hiroshima Games, said the younger bowlers coming through were not "of the same breed as the current batch".

"Sadly, they do not have the same work ethics. We train for two hours and then we put into practice what we have learnt during our free time," she said.

"Now, they are satisfied with the two hours. We cannot produce a world youth champion this way.

"We do not lack talent, but all the younger bowlers want is an easy way to success. They are not willing to put in the extra work.

"If they continue with this attitude, soon we will have the quantity but not quality in our bowling pool of talent," Shalin said.

- The Star (Malaysia)