Kuala Lumpur: BAM (Badminton Association of Malaysia) officials have kept silent for weeks as criticisms mounted against the organization, but on Monday, the president of BAM Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff, finally spoke out in defense of BAM.
In his statement related to Hoon Thien How, who dropped a hint that he may quit BAM because his monthly salary of RM3,500 has stayed stagnant; and Ng Hui Lin, who left BAM because she was unhappy with a low monthly salary of RM1,300 and other disorganization at BAM, Tengku Mahaleel offered explanations from his perspective.
“Players receive monthly allowances from us, and we pay about RM2,000 a month per player for their food and lodging. We also have to pay for the badminton courts that cost about RM500,000 per year.”
“For shuttlers who ranked top 10 in the BWF world rankings, they’ll receive RM200,000 to RM300,000 each in bonuses and prize money, and BAM do not take a penny from them.”
“BAM also spend about RM50,000 per player for sending them to 8-12 tournaments a year.”
“Not to mention players also have their own endorsements.”
Tengku Mahaleel stressed that in regards to Ng Hu Lin’s departure from BAM, the country’s interest must come first.
“Players should respect the coaches’ decision to pair players up. We can only respect her decision to leave.”
Tengku Mahaleel also touched on the contractual issues that were bothering the BAM coaches.
“All coaches were told today that their contracts will expire in March.”
“The reason is we would like to give Morten Frost Hansen who will take over the technical director position in March a complete authority to pick his team of coaches.”
“As for the 2015 SEA Games, some independent players are invited to attend the selection trial.”
