LIEW Daren is hoping that the mandate given to him to captain the Thomas Cup team will resurrect his fading career.
The 27-year-old was touted as Lee Chong Wei’s ideal replacement after the shuttler won the 2012 French Open but injuries and the pressure to succeed affected his confidence in competitions.However, Daren believes he is now a different player after the recent 10-day camp in Kuala Lumpur. The World No 66 wants to prove his critics wrong and make a huge impression in the Thomas Cup, which starts tomorrow.
It has been a disastrous season so far for the Kuala Lumpur born. His best result was reaching the last 16 of the German Open. The shuttler was ousted in the early rounds of the Malaysia Open and the Asia Championship; and was also shown the exit in the qualifying round of the All England.
Daren will be making his second straight Thomas Cup appearance but this time as the third singles shuttler to Chong Wei and Chong Wei Feng. The two-time Sea Games silver medallist will play an important role if ties go down the wire.
Daren made an impressive debut in 2012 in Wuhan by being undefeated in the group stage against South Africa and Denmark. However, injury to Chong Wei forced the team to field him in first singles against China in the quarter-finals. He started well against Lin Dan by taking the first game but could not maintain his momentum.
“I have learnt a lot from the camp. The coaches even showed us a video of Malaysia’s win in 1992. It has motivated me to do my best the tournament,” said Daren.
“I do not feel any pressure being the captain but of course, expectations are different as my responsibility is not only performing on court. But I am focused on winning my matches, which I am confident of doing.”
Malaysia will start their Group C campaign against India tomorrow followed by Germany the next day and South Korea on Tuesday.
“Critics are saying we are a weak team. I have to disagree with them. I think we are good team, not like what people perceive. How we do will boil down to our performance on match day,” said Daren, who won his first senior title at the Taiwan Satellite in 2005.
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