Thomas Cup: Prepare for "war"

"If you want peace, be ready for war. Indonesia's Thomas Cup team must be ready for war, failling which, they will be humiliated".

That was the introduction of an article in Kompas, a report by A Tjahjo Sasongko which reminded the Indonesian players of how "terror tactics" were used to frightened them during the 1992 Thomas and Uber Cup final rounds in Kuala Lumpur.

The report was published Thursday.

This reminder came as Indonesia prepares to participate in next years Thomas Cup finals to be held in Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil in May 2010. Malaysia lifted the prestigious cup five times since 1949, the last being in 1992, where they beat Indonesia 3-2 in the final.

The writer reminded the players that 17 years is not a short period and "do not be surprised if they (Malaysia) has a great desire to win next year".

Singles player, Hendrawan Susanto talks about how his team were harassed in 1992. "We felt the pressure during trainings.....the lights would suddenly go out and at times we had to find a venue to train."

The same pressure was felt by Alan Budi Kusuma, who was 17 years old in 1992. " We begin to feel things were not right when we came out of the hotel. Sometimes our transport come very late and when it came it was a bus without air condition."

However, the report also admitted that Indonesian fans did the same things when the tournament was held in Jakarta in 1994 and 2008.

The report went on to discuss other events and also certain issues that has come up recently. But, one thing is clear, Indonesia is preparing to give a good fight when the Thomas Cup is held in Kuala Lumpur again.