KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 ― The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is looking for suitable candidates as the coaching director.

Coaching and Training (C&T) committee chairman, Datuk Ng Chin Chai said the candidates would be a person who is able to handle the entire badminton squad from coaches to players on a full-time basis.

He noted that in the three-hour meeting today, the committee had agreed that by having a coaching director, the training programme would be more effective and more focused on achieving results at major events.

"We will come out with the job description. We have just discussed it today and we will advertise it soon.

"Prior to the C&T meeting, some names were brought up but because the job scope has not been worked out, we prefer not to share the names.

"There are no applicants for the post and no particular person had been identified...we are just in the early stage,” he told reporters after the C&T meeting today.

Chin Chai mentioned that the job description for a coaching director would be different from former technical director, Morten Frost Hansen.

He added that there was no timeline in finding the candidate but it would definitely be before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

"No timeline but definitely before the 2020 Olympics because our next ultimate goal is the 2020 Olympics,” he said.

Pending the coaching director, he said that the coaches have been informed to instil the discipline and higher quality of training as well as revive their training programme.

Chin Chai who is also the BAM secretary said that he has asked the Rules and Disciplinary Committee to look into a report about the betting activities and coaches who were not doing their job.

"We have informed all coaches that we do not condone any betting activities and there shall be no betting activities in whatever form whether money or friendly.

"We have referred the matters to the Rules and Disciplinary Committee to look into these allegations in the papers and whether such allegations are true or not, if so, who are they and to be taken proper action,” he said.

During the recent 2018 Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang, the national badminton squad failed to achieve their target to deliver two medals.

Malaysian shuttlers did not go beyond the quarter-finals and failed to win a medal for the first time in 32 years since the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

Besides that, they failed to defend their overall title at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April after falling one short of their three-gold target and also blew a semi-final target in the Thomas Cup Finals by losing in the quarter-finals in Bangkok, Thailand, in May.

And none of the BAM players returned home with a medal at the World Championships in Nanjing, China, earlier this month but it took an independent shuttler, Liew Daren to save Malaysia the blushes by claiming bronze in the men’s singles.

Due to that, Chin Chai said that BAM would be reviewing the status of some of the players especially the senior players periodically because the next exit window is in December. 

He said that senior players have been given the ultimatum that they have to deliver podium performance at major events.

He listed some of the major events next year as the World Championships and SEA Games as well as the Sudirman Cup and Asia Team Championship.

"So the senior players are given the ultimatum...they have to deliver medals otherwise we will also slowly face them out. We won’t wait until the Olympic 2020,” he added.

Chin Chai also mentioned that the national squad should get out from the comfort zone and work harder to improve their performance. ― Bernama