Axiata Cup: Malaysia To Banks On 'Tigers' And 'Leopards'

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's shuttlers have been divided to form two national teams - the Malaysian Tigers and Malaysia Leopards - to take up the country's challenge in the inaugural Axiata Cup, an invitational badminton tournament offering US$1 million in prize money. The Tigers who have been drawn in Group K aree made up of World Number 1, Lee Chong Wei and world number six men's doubles pair, Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong, 2003 All-England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, Liew Daren, Muhammad Arif Abdul Latif and second national pair Goh V Shem/Lim Kim Wah. All matches involving Group K will be held at the Badminton Stadium in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur here. Also in Group K are Indonesia's Rajawali, Thailand and the Philippines. Shuttlers making up the Leopards are world junior singles champion Zulfadli Zulkifli, Iskandar Zulkarnain, Misbun Ramdan Misbun, 2009 world junior doubles champions Ow Yao Han/Chooi Kah Ming and 2011 world junior doubles champions Teo Ee Yi/Nelson Heg Wei Keat. The Leopards have been drawn in Group J together with Indonesia's Garuda, Singapore and Vietnam. Matches in Group J will be held in at two venues in Jakarta - Senayan Indoor Tennis Stadium and Kelapa Gading Sports Mall (Britama Arena). The preliminary Round Robin group matches will be played over three days from March 23-25. After the group stage, the two top teams from each group then play cross over home and away games in the semi-finals on separate weekends. The semi-finals will be held in March 31 and April 1. The finals will be held in the same home and away format as the semi-finals on April 13 and April 15. The Axiata Cup tournament is sanctioned by the Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC). The winning team will receive US$400,000 (RM1.21 million), second place US$200,000 (RM605,634), each of the two losing semi-finalists US$100,000 (RM302,817) and each of the four quarterfinalists US$50,000 (RM151,408). (US$1 = RM3.00) -- BERNAMA