BANGI, Dec 22 — The time has come for national badminton to follow in the footsteps of football and rugby which have grassroots development programmes following the deteriorating performances of Malaysia at the junior levels.

The national junior squad triggered anxiety when they returned home empty-handed from two major championships this year - the Asian Junior Badminton Championship in China in July and the World Junior Badminton Championship in Russia in October.

National singles legend, Rashid Sidek supported the setting up of a development programme such as the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) which was an apt measure to ensure Malaysia would not continue regularly to be left behind compared to Thailand, Indonesia and China who excelled at the junior level.

But, he said a large and consistent allocation was needed if the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) and the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) wanted to create the programme.

‘’From my personal point of view, to have a programme like that we should have enough budget. It is difficult to carry out without a budget,’’ he told a media conference on the final match of the ‘Kejohanan Juara Tangkis Tun Dr Siti Hasmah’ here today.

Rashid said this when asked on the need of the sport of badminton to have a grassroot development programme following the deterioration of Malaysia’s performance at the junior level.

The 1996 Olympics bronze medal winner and now the Sports Affairs badminton club chief coach, said his duty was to train and mould players towards becoming champions, but a higher platform was needed to obtain experience.

‘’For a programme like NFDP..all that, if in badminton, we depend on BAM’s existing programmes. As a club, we are supplementary in getting new talents and training them into become champions. 

‘’BAM can absorb these players. We have no issues over this, as we have done it prior to this,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Rashid, who was the programme director of the championship, which was being held for the first time, said several young talents had been identified in the final matches which took place at Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) here.

The Unggul Team under the guidance of former national badminton player, Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif were crowned champions and took home RM20,000 and the challenge cup.

‘’I am very proud of the fighting spirit and determination of the players who exhibited a high commitment as a team at a very young age. This is only a start, and I believe with continuous effort they will emerge as champions in future,’’ Rashid added. — Bernama