Is BAM going in the right direction?

How unprofessional can a National Association get?

In today's world your website becomes one of your primary weapons, and means to communicate with the world, to and influence them and to promote your message. Do the bigwigs at BAM actually need telling?????

9.21pm here in Toronto, May 25. Almost exactly 2 full days after my last post on this subject. Guess what? Nothing's changed.

http://www.bam.org.my/

I don't know about any of you guys, but this just tells me about the depth of the problem in the organisation, the lack of communication inside, and the lack of accountability and responsibility.

 

The way I understand it, BAM is funded at least partially (and indirectly) by the taxpayer's money. So if you are an honest, hardworking citizen of Malaysia, you may already have contributed to the website costs of BAM.

which brings us to the issue of transparency and accountability in public offices... usually identifiable by the lack of these attributes thereof...

 

Defeat raises more worries

From an article in NST:

I find that last sentence especially interesting! What gave the reporter the impression that such an important team event like the SC is not a priority for Malaysia?

Full story: http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/55ludir/Mobile/article_html

 

About a month ago, the Sports Minister had declared,
"If Misbun chose not to accept the offer, I need to know the details and need it soon. ...
...I was made to understand that Misbun's task will be to produce many more Lee Chong Wei's for the future and I feel it is a fair request."

Presumably he was given the details. There has been a strange silence from him and BAM ever since on this subject.

I am bringing this up because it appears there is a big lack of accountability at BAM. We were used to all the bigwigs making statements and predictions and outlining ideas and action plans and programmes with great regularity. Maybe even warning non-performers with consequences... And all of a sudden, we have this silence. No regular press releases or updates; no announcements; no chatty sound bites; only Rashid making a few lame remarks to the press at a tournament. For an association whose bigwigs have been so vocal for so long, this is all a bit strange. And it would appear the minister has kinda lost interest in BAM...

And of course, no website! At all!

 

I would think, it is the duty and responsibility of a national association that "represents the national interest" to ensure the country gets its best representation at all times. This means reaching out to independent players as well. This means reaching into all the villages and towns and unearthing the best talent. This means establishing and managing and monitoring the best network of local coaches, trainers, administrators, talent scouts, promoters and facilitators with the objective of encouraging, supporting and nurturing the best talent in the country.

Besides, National players are not born overnight. They are created. For every "National player" there are probably dozens, possibly hundreds who sweated blood, gave up further education, but never made it. It is the duty and responsibility of a national association to ensure that the one "national player" they have selected justifies all the blood that the others sweated, by delivering on performance.

 

Most national associations have the same objectives, more or less. The question to be asked is: do they achieve these stated objectives, and do they do this consistently? That is the mark of a successful association.

How do you measure the achievement of the objectives? Simple. By the results and the legacy. And in this case, what would the results and legacy be, according to you?

I do agree that professional players going independent should not be given unfair treatment. The best way is obviously for either BWF to register them directly, or have something like an international players association. My point in this regard was simply that the BAM attitude to the independents is probably counter-productive and nails the lie of "national interest."

 

So, what is the selection process for juniors etc etc in the national squad? Can anyone here lead us through the process that BAM follows to select talent?