GEORGE TOWN: President of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff wants more tournaments to be organised in the country in a bid to scout new talents in badminton.
He said, right now, Malaysia only had 1,800 badminton players who were active in participating in tournaments compared to 3,800 players in China.
“In Malaysia, we have about 1,800 active participating players and about 34 players in the national squad to choose from. China has 3,800. So, that’s how far we are against the top nation.
“We must quickly build the base, ours is so small…we have to expand it. If not, our chance of finding new talents is very slim,” he told reporters at the 80th birthday celebration of former national shuttler Datuk Teh Kew San here yesterday.
Tengku Mahaleel said cooperation from various quarters, including the National Sports Council, Education Ministry, as well as Youth and Sports Ministry, was really needed in organising more badminton tournaments at the school and state levels.
He said BAM had lined up its plan for the national squad from 2015 to 2010 and the presence of Morten Frost Hansen from Denmark as BAM’s new technical director was seen to be capable of improving the quality of player. “Our aim is to always be in the top three in the world,” Tengku Mahaleel said.
Meanwhile, Teh also called on young national shuttlers to make optimum use of the opportunities and facilities made available to them to improve their performance.
“During my time, we have no facilities like this. We trained on our own most of the time, except when we have tournament…Nowadays, the youngsters are very lucky, they have the facilities, but they must make good used of it. “I see that they can build the future of badminton, but sad to say, badminton (player), at the moment, is difficult to last for more than five years,” he said. —Bernama