BAM need to place emphasis on local meets to unearth talent

PETALING JAYA: It is time for the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to pay more emphasis on their local tournaments.

They hope to unearth new talents from the local meets but the lack of interest on the just concluded first leg of the National Badminton Circuit was evident.

The circuit opener – the Kuala Lumpur Open – ended on Sunday with most of the BAM players winning all the titles in Division One and Two. In short, it was just another mundane affair in a local tournament.

But the whole atmosphere could have been different if BAM had generated more interest and given priority to their own events.

For starters, the prize money is little with the men’s singles champion Chong Wei Feng taking home RM4,000. The organising states were given only RM20,000 to run the four-day event although the cost had doubled.

The local event is a platform for the BAM to unearth talents but lack of monetary incentive has either kept the players away or prevent them from giving their all in the tournaments.

Without much perks, the players prefer to compete in other tournaments that offer better rewards.

The absence of world number one Lee Chong Wei also took the shine in the tournament although the national body had stated that it was compulsory for their top players to compete.

Chong Wei had an obligation to play in China league and he also had to turn up as a guest at the Formula One Race – on the final day of the KL Open. Just imagine how many aspiring youngsters would have raced to the KLBA Stadium if the world No.1 had played.

BAM chose to sent players for the Australian Open instead of letting them play in the KL Open. The reason – they want their players to win ranking points for the Olympic Games – although the qualifying period begins on May 1.

It is better to scrape the local circuit if it is not serving the targets set by BAM. Maybe, they should look into running an exciting and lucrative league like what China and Indonesia BAs are doing.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 2:47 PM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0