Junior shuttlers should be given more opportunities, say former badminton players
Malaysia’s former badminton players including Eddy Choong, Teh Kew San, Razif Sidek and Cheah Soon Kit say that junior shuttlers should be given more opportunities to participate in international events as it will help them to become world beaters.
All of these former great shuttlers of the country expressed this notion while attending a special ceremony that was organised by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to honour them.
Malaysia is currently facing a dearth of top class shuttlers in all categories including Men’s and Women’s Singles, Men’s and Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.
There are only a few Malaysian players who are performing well at international stage but after their retirement, there will be no one to replace them as all back-up players are far behind in skills when it comes to perform in international tournaments.
Eddy, who is one of the all time best shuttlers in the history of Malaysia, said that juniors are the future of country and they should be given more emphasis. According to him, this is the only way to elevate the standard of badminton in Malaysia.
Another former player, Kew San put stress on the formulation of more effective training and development programmes in all regions of the country.
He said, “We should create a vibrant inter-state programme. There should not be any age limit so every player has an opportunity to show who’s the best in the state. Let a youngster play against a senior as this will speed up his progress.”
Another former great, Razif said that Junior World Champions should be given proper chance to prove their worth in the arena of elite shuttlers. He also said that current Junior World Champion, Zulfadli Zulkiffli, should be included in the team for Thomas Cup.
He said, “Zulfadli must be given the right exposure. He is a world junior champion and now’s the time to push him. He should join the centralised training with the Thomas Cup team as he will benefit a great deal from it.”
BAM needs to provide more chances to junior shuttlers as there is no other player in Men’s Singles category who has the ability to replace the World Number One, Lee Chong Wei. Same is the case in all other categories of the game.
According to the former greats, the badminton body should promote junior players and elevate their skills to transform them into world class players, which is the only way to survive in the arena of badminton at international level.
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