Call It Risky If Praveen/Melati Are Separated, Head Of Binpres PBSI: They Are Not Young Anymore, Who Will They Listen To?

Melati Daeva Oktavianti (Instagram @ bwf.official)

JAKARTA - The mixed doubles performance of Indonesia, Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti continues to be in the spotlight. This was following the poor results they obtained at the Indonesia Masters 2021.

Communication was allegedly the main factor that made The Honey Couple's appearance plummet in the field recently. Because of that problem, there was also a rumor that said that there was a heart problem between the two.

In the aftermath of the communication chaos that made their performance plummet, an option emerged for Praveen/Melati to be separated. However, this was not approved by Nova Widianto the coach, he instead gave the option for Praveen/Melati to play outside the national training.

Regarding the existing problems and the option to separate Praveen/Melati, PBSI's Head of Binpres, Rionny Mainaky, spoke up. He actually agreed with what Nova said, but there was something he also wanted to clarify.

Rionny said it would be risky if Praveen/Melati were separated, considering that they are no longer young. According to him, it is not easy to find duet friends who can balance each other.

"That they (Praveen/Melati) are not young anymore. Who are they separated from? Now, the only thing that is equal to them is Gloria (Emanuelle Widjaja), Melati, then who else? correctly?", Rionny said, followed by VOI from an official statement, Monday, November 22.

Furthermore, according to Rionny, instead of being busy looking for new partners for Praveen/Melati, if they are separated, it is better for the coach and team to be busy looking for and developing the talents of young players.

"It's better for us to focus on preparing for young players, not swapping again. How old are they?",

Regarding the suggestion to Praveen/Melati about the suggestion to play outside the national training, Rionny also didn't have a problem. He invited the two of them to do that if they could, considering playing outside the national training ground was not easy.

“For example, if they feel they are not capable, they (Praveen/Melati) can manage themselves, so if you want to try (play outside the national training), please feel free to do it. I'm sure it will be more difficult and they will feel alone and regret it on the outside because it is not easy", he said.

Rionny also said that so far PBSI has not discussed further the proposal related to Praveen/Melati to play outside the national training. Because for him the most important thing right now is to focus on improving his badminton players.

Given that after the Indonesia Masters 2021 tournament, there are still three more agendas that must be followed by badminton players. The agenda is the Indonesia Open 2021, the BWF World Tour Finals, and finally the World Championships.

With the remaining time, Rionny hopes that Praveen/Melati can slowly return to their best performance. To be able to boost it, he and the coach have prepared a short-term program for the players.

"I told Nova to take care of their physicality (badminton). Everyone is tired, it's almost 7 championships, I will try my best to raise their motivation", said Rionny.

“It's not easy because it needs a short program, so I ask the coach to take care of their condition, push there. I've experienced people like this (Praveen/Melati whose quality of play has decreased) and will try my best. I hope everyone will recover", he said.