Yogendran: Coaches should go abroad

KUALA LUMPUR: Former international K. Yogendran has urged Malaysian badminton coaches to take up offers to coach overseas.

The 35-year-old Yogendran, who is the head coach of the Mauritius badminton team, believes Malaysian coaches can make it big elsewhere.

Malaysia’s three other coaches plying their trade abroad are Tan Kim Her (doubles coach in India), Wong Tat Meng (coaching director in Scotland) and Jeremy Gan (mixed doubles coach in Japan) – and they have proven to be assets to their respective teams.

Jeremy guided Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino to earn a historic first mixed doubles All-England title for Japan in March while Kim Her helped India wrest the team gold from Malaysia in last month’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

“In Malaysia, the coaching set-up of Badminton Association of Malaysia ( BAM) can accommodate a certain number of coaches,” said Yogendran after the sponsorship signing ceremony in which Fleet International sponsored RM120,000 in sports equipment to the Mauritius team.

“There are so many good coaches in the country and I think they should not let their expertise go to waste. If there are opportunities, just go for it. After all we all love badminton, and we want to give something back to the sport.”

Yogendran is certainly doing a good job in Mauritius having helped them qualify for the Uber Cup Finals in Bangkok, Thailand, by virtue of being the All Africa women’s team champions.

Mauritius have been drawn in Group C with South Korea, Denmark and Russia in the Finals which start on Sunday.