What is a Malaysian Badminton player? Define it first - ABM Chief

The goal of the development of our national badminton players should start with the question: What kind of players do we want to develop?

Petronas Akademi Badminton Malaysia CEO Michelle Chai said that the talk has always been about developing the right talents or the right players without focusing on the type of players the nation wants to develop.

"If we do not have an idea about the type of player we want to produce then the selection of players will be varied. So we may pick certain players then five or 10 years down the road we will look back and lament.

"We need to define what is a Malaysian Badminton player, then we work backwards," said Chai.

She added that the definition can be formed from a set of criteria or characteristics that a player has.

"For example, let's say we want players at a certain height or a player with good feet movement. All these must be factored in when we select the players that we want," Chai said in an interview on Astro AWANI's Consider This, discussing the recent performances of the national badminton team and the future of the country's talent development in the sport.

The interview also featured journalist Haresh Deol, co-founder and editor of news site Twentytwo13.

When asked what needs to change for our national shuttlers to perform well, Haresh said the first thing is to recalibrate the approach or the goal.

"We are too fixated on medals. We need to turn Malaysia into a sporting country first, the medals will come later.

"There has to be a massive reset in the way we approach sports. Once we become a sporting country, we will develop the talent pool and then the medals and world championships will come naturally," added Haresh.