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BAM to make stand on 11x5 format upon receiving report from Choong Hann, Misbun

THE BA of Malaysia (BAM) have left it in the hands of coaching director Wong Choong Hann and development director Misbun Sidek to decide on the 11x5 scoring format.

BAM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria said the two technical heads have been given the mandate to discuss the matter with the coaching staff and players before presenting their proposal to the management.

The Badminton World Federation

(BWF) hope to implement the new scoring system after the Tokyo Olympics in July.

“The discussion is still at the working level and has yet to be presented to the management,” said Norza on Saturday.

“Datuk Kenny (Goh) will work closely with Choong Hann and Misbun before we vote at the BWF annual general meeting (AGM) next month,” he added.

It is understood that the BAM will have five votes at the AGM to be held virtually on May 27.

The new scoring format, which will replace the current 21x3 was proposed by Badminton Indonesia and Badminton Maldives and is heavily backed by BWF president Poul-Erik Hoyer.

Earlier, Choong Hann had pointed out that BAM are on a neutral stand, and that players will eventually get used to the new system.

All England champion Lee Zii Jia also feels that he is fit enough to play a faster pace attacking game should the new format be voted in next month.

There were two previous attempts to change the scoring system to the 11x5 format.

The 11x5 system was voted upon during the AGM in Bangkok in 2018, but it failed to garner the two-thirds majority required to implement it.

It was also experimented with in 2014, with several tournaments adopting the 11x5 format, but the proposal was eventually defeated.