Seven badminton greats join BAM’s technical advisory panel

KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has set up a technical advisory panel comprising seven former national badminton players and seven sports executives, as a way to improve the performance of the national squad.

In a statement released yesterday, BAM said the members included Olympian Datuk Lee Chong Wei, former men’s singles players Roslin Hashim and Ong Ewe Hock, former men’s doubles pair Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, Datuk Seri Jalani Sidek and Datuk Cheah Soon Kit.

The players will join BAM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria as a panel chair and the chief executive officer of the National Sports Institute (NSI) Ahmad Faedzal Md Ramli.

“The panel include BAM vice presidents Datuk Teoh Teng Chor and Datuk Ng Chin Chai, BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh Chee Keong, as well as former National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Dr Ramlan Abd Aziz,” it stated.

The statement added, the Technical Advisory Panel, serving on a pro bono basis, will provide additional input, advice and strategic guidance to the Board of Trustees and Management of Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) with the aim of enhancing player performances for the long-term strategic goal of podium performances at the Olympic Games, Multi-Sport Events and Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour tournaments.

“The Technical Advisory Panel, who will meet every quarter, will review performance of players and coaches and where required propose changes in policies, training programmes and tournament participation in the form of recommendations to the Board of Trustees,” it stated.

The panel’s first meeting is expected to take place at the end of February.