BAM decision akin to surgeons reporting to lawyers
LETTERS: I would like to question the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) decision to give Malaysian Badminton Academy chief executive officer Michelle Chai and high-performance director Dr Tim Jones the authority to assess aspects of high performance.
This smacks of BAM washing its hands of the issue, especially when the topic of non-performance rears its head.
Let’s look at the poor performance of our senior players (unless one thinks Ng Tze Yong and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik’s performance is fantastic) and junior players at the World Junior Championships.
When Malaysia loses, Chai and Jones will have to answer, but when Malaysia wins, BAM can join in the celebrations and take credit for it.
Is there no one else who can take on this job of maintaining high performance?
Some say that you don’t have to be an ex-state or national player to administer badminton. I agree.
But we have an abundance of former players, and many of them are working as coaches abroad.
We are at our lowest ebb, judging by the World Juniors performance, and many non-traditional badminton-playing countries have advanced.
Selecting Chai and Jones is not going to resolve Malaysia’s badminton woes.
I pity doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky and coaching director Wong Choong Hann reporting to officials who don’t know anything about world badminton.
It is akin to surgeons reporting to lawyers about their surgery.
MARK N.
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
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