India's doubles coach Tan Kim Her has resigned citing personal reasons 18 months before his tenure was to end at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 47-year-old Malaysian, who came to India in 2015, was contracted till 2020 Tokyo Olympics and was entrusted with the responsibility of helping at least one Indian doubles combination finish on the podium in the Japanese capital.
While the reason for his resignation is not clear yet, sources in Badminton Association of India say that the coach has resigned as he received a better offer from some other country and wanted to move on. Kim Her also wanted an extension till 2024 which was not possible at this time.
Tan Kim Her has earlier coached England, South Korea, and Malaysia and there are speculations that he might have received some lucrative offer from another country.
Asked about it, Rashid said: "No there is no truth in such speculations. There was no problem he left purely due to personal reasons."
Under Tan Kim Her, India saw the rise of men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games and also helped the country win the mixed team gold for the first time.
Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand confirmed Kim Her's resignation but refused to speculate about the reasons behind the Malaysian's decision to quit before his contract expired.
Kim Her's biggest success during his four year's stint was the emergence of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who won a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and are currently ranked 20 in the world.
BAI had insisted that the new coaches would be working on creating a second string of Indian doubles players while Kim Her would be concentrating on the five-six pairs who had a chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.
Messages and calls to Tan Kim Her went unanswered.
