BAM to provide huge monetary boost to states to develop grassroots players

China have again showed that they are in their own league by nailing the Sudirman Cup for the eighth time.
And Malaysia believe that a huge monetary boost of RM1.6mil into their development programme soon will help to bridge the gap in standard with China.

For the future: Chin Chai wants to create a strong talent base.

Yesterday, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary, Ng Chin Chai, announced of their big plans to restore their grassroots programme, which will see the states playing a bigger role in nurturing players.
“It will not be too wrong to say that Malaysia are 10 years behind China. It will take years of effort, a strong base of talent and lots of money for us to catch up with them,” said Chin Chai.
“But the good news is that grand plans are in the pipeline for us to strengthen our state programmes. This will ensure us to have steady flow of talent coming through to the national set-up.
“The National Sports Council (NSC) currently give us RM1mil for the state programmes. Now, the BAM will top it up with another RM1.6mil.
“A state will now get about RM200,000 instead of RM30,000 annually from us. The monetary boost will help them regulate their programmes for the players aged between 10 and 18-years-old. We will revive badminton competitions in schools.
“The BAM’s development committee, as the central authoritative body, will coordinate all the state development programmes. We need good implementors and we are also investing on producing good coaches to complement the state programmes. We are serious in creating a wider base.”
The new multi-million ringgit programmes will be unveiled as soon as BAM officially signs a lucrative sponsorship deal.
On the performances of Malaysia in the just concluded world mixed team championships in Qingdao, Chin Chai, who is also the coaching and training committee chairman, said that the team did reasonably well.
Malaysia were eliminated by South Korea in the quarter-finals, losing the tie 2-3.
“South Korea have reached the semi-finals in every edition of the Sudirman Cup. It is encouraging to see our team drag them down to the wire. It was a good experience for some of our first timers, among them Tee Jing Yi and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying,” he said.
Chin Chai agreed that if the Sudirman Cup was used as a yardstick, the China players will be the main title contenders in all the events at the next major championships – the world meet in London from Aug 8-14.
In the men’s singles, Lin Dan will still be the favourite to win a fourth world title. At the moment, Malaysia’s world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei is seen as the only player who is able to turn the tables on Lin Dan.
China, however, are the overwhelming favourites to win the women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles titles.
And if veterans Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng can stay on top of their game, a fourth world title is a possibility for them.