Bring back the Badminton Academy
Posted on 4 June 2012 - 07:56pm
Last updated on 4 June 2012 - 09:50pm
The Sun
THIS is the third week in a row that this column deals with the same topic – the state of affairs of badminton in the country – the one truly people’s sport played by millions of Malaysians from all walks of life.
I do so to show the importance that I, as a die-hard follower, attach to our survival as a badminton-playing nation of world reckoning.
Many may think we need not yet press the panic button despite recent events, the latest being the Thomas Cup debacle in China 10 days ago. And our only realistic hope of winning Malaysia’s first ever Olympic gold medal – the ultimate prize for any sport – world No. 1 Datuk Lee Chong Wei, is nursing the worst injury of his career hardly two months shy of the London Olympics.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has taken a lot of criticism following Malaysia’s recent failure to reach even the semi-final of the Thomas Cup, something we normally take for granted.
Even with a fully fit Chong Wei, the squad for the 2012 Thomas Cup was billed the weakest we’ve assembled, and when he sustained the injury at the quarter-final against Denmark, our hopes crashed around him.
In the wake of all this, BAM president Datuk Seri Nadzmi Salleh on Thursday came out with remarks that amount to a telling admission of why our badminton is what it is today.
He told the media: “In the long run, we will focus on grassroots development.
“We also need to unearth more talents like Chong Wei. We aim to develop more players into world beaters, but to do that we need world class coaches.
“I’ve also issued a challenge to current coaches to try to develop their players into world-beaters.”
This is vintage Nadzmi, making mild points that betray the gravity of the situation especially the fact that Chong Wei is now our only world-class player. And if this greatest ambassador of badminton we’ve ever produced hangs his racquet up after the Olympics, being more injury-prone now than ever and with age catching up, the vacuum is a long way from being filled.
I’m disappointed that fellow journalists who met Nadzmi that day did not apparently ask him this: “Do you mean to say that after all these years, BAM hasn’t done all this?”
This brings me to what happened 20 years ago when Datuk Dr Abdullah Fadzil Che Wan took over as BAM president from Tan Sri Elyas Omar.
Elyas during his tenure established a full-fledged Malaysian Badminton Academy as well as the Malaysian Badminton Foundation to fund it.
BAM had set up the academy in a joint venture with MBf, at that time a top finance company which later merged with AmBank following the banking merger exercise.
The federal government allocated 2.7ha in Taman Maluri, Kuala Lumpur for the project, where MBf set up the Garden International School which doubled up as the academy. Badminton-minded students enrolled at the school were given priority to train at the academy while the foundation, which received donations from well-
wishers and the corporate sector, provided scholarships to needy students being groomed into world beaters.
Those familiar with the academy said it was working very well. Unfortunately it, along with the foundation, were disbanded soon after Fadzil took over.
In the words of one badminton fan who texted me after reading my column last week: “The academy was launched with fanfare but disappeared without even a whimper after just a few promising years of existence. That, to me, is the other side of Malaysia’s badminton tragedy”.
I still remember an announcement by then BAM secretary Punch Gunalan that the academy would be replaced by a project under which 1,000 badminton courts would be built throughout the country.
Whatever happened to those 1,000 courts? No doubt, such courts can be an avenue for the people to sweat it out, but on their own, how do they produce world champions compared to an entity such as an academy?
According to former
New Straits Times sports editor Tony Francis, the courts project was subsequently taken over by two businessmen including Vell Pari, a son of former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.
Vell Pari is currently overseas and unavailable to shed light on what happened to the project.
Nadzmi had also said Malaysia was facing a dearth of players who could be turned into world beaters, and on hindsight, we could blame this on, among other
things, the decision of his predecessor to dismantle the academy.
Assuming that the academy produced just 20 badminton talents a year, over the last 20 years, we would have stockpiled 400 such talents. And even if just 20% made it to some international ranking, this would be 80 players.
Because we killed the academy, Malaysia has since had to depend on well over-the-hill players like Hafiz Hashim for the second singles slot and needless to say, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. And despite our top two doubles pairs performing badly against China, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, we had no choice but to persist with them, having no solid back-up players.
The government which designated the land for the academy should also be asking what happened to it?
BAM should bring back the academy without wasting more resources and time conducting post mortems, something Malaysian sports bodies are obsessed with.
A state badminton association president, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that to unearth talent, there used to be the national schoolboys championship, the Heah Joo Siang inter-state championship, and even inter-company championships. These no longer exist.
“BAM spends millions a year, but how much goes to development at the state level? We are spending pittance compared on travelling expenses, salaries and other perks. How can we go on like this?” he asked.
I am told some BAM council members, especially state presidents, have been on the panel for well over 30 years and that perhaps it’s time they made way for fresh faces, since we haven’t for a long time seen world beaters from these states.
No doubt Nadzmi has a lot on his plate in restoring some semblance of honour to our time-tested national sport. Badminton is much more to Malaysia’s sporting honour and image than personalities.
Recent events are not only a wake-up call but also indicate it is time for soul-searching across the board at BAM.
Azman Ujang is a former editor-in-chief of Bernama. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
http://m.thesundaily.my/news/397858
lets study some history, shall we?? Mr Azman, you have my respect