The Danish shuttlers who won the Thomas Cup for the first time in Denmark's history last week had trained with Malaysian badminton legends Misbun and Jalani Sidek.

Jalani confirmed this after a picture of Danish shuttlers Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Jan O Jorgensen with Misbun and Jalani circulated on social media soon after Denmark’s victory.

Denmark defeated Malaysia 3-2 in the semi-finals on Friday, and came up tops against Indonesia in the final to become the first European nation to win the Thomas Cup.

“They trained with Misbun for two weeks before the Malaysia Open... they were targeting the Thomas Cup and the Olympics,” Jalani is quoted by Bernama as saying.

Jalani said this was nothing unusual as the Malaysian Thomas Cup winning team in 1992 had also trained with three coaches from China with the aim of winning the cup.

“This was how Denmark trained, and we should do the same, too,” he told the newswire.

He added that the Danish players’ training was not sponsored by the national association so they are free to seek coaching from whomever they please.

“They met Misbun because they wanted to find out how (Malaysian shuttler Lee) Chong Wei can remain competitive,” Jalani reportedly said.

Misbun also got to know the Danish shuttlers during tournaments when he was coaching Lee, he said.

Commenting on the Thomas Cup performance, Jalani said the selection of players and setting the target was the Badminton Association of Malaysia's (BAM) prerogative since the BAM knows the players and their capabilities.

"I can only share my views if asked about the Thomas Cup winning squad of 1992 and the current squad. The selection of the players is done by the BAM and if the national body says qualifying for the semi-finals is a bonus, it is not wrong.

"During our time the target and focus was winning the Thomas Cup. If in the past we sought the assistance of coaches from China, the current squad has the services of BAM technical director Morten Frost Hansen from Denmark," he said.