KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia are finally looking into ways to popularise their domestic badminton competitions to prevent them from becoming stale affairs.
And the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have given themselves a one-year deadline to come up with something more appealing.
The events committee, led by Datuk Al-Amin Majid, have the task to get feedback from experts to review the incentives and to bring back excitement in local tournaments in 2012.
The BAM general manager, Kenny Goh , said that it was time to make local events appealing to the players and the public.
“This year is dedicated to reviewing the whole works of our local calendar. We will work closely with the states and we want to approach people with the knowledge of hosting local tournaments,” he said.
“The findings will be reviewed and we will unveil a more appealing domestic calendar in 2012. We have exactly a year to work on this.”
Kenny said that it was important that they have good competitions to unearth new talent.
“The domestic event should create interest among the public. There should also be a platform for youngsters to gauge their standard against the best in the country.”
Currently, all the other strong badminton nations – China, Denmark, South Korea and Indonesia – have very competitive local tournaments and leagues.
In fact, some of the Malaysian players prefer to play in the foreign leagues which offer more prize money and also greater challenges.
For this year, the BAM’s premier national circuit will have only two legs – in Perak (April 8-11) and in Kedah (July 21-14).
The 100Plus national junior circuit will have two legs each for Zone A and B teams and one leg for the East Malaysia Zone.
BAM plan to up appeal of local tournaments