Copenhagen: According to Dato’ Norza Zakaria – the Deputy-President of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), they are looking to hire a head coach for the national training and coaching department by end of 2014.
The head coach would be responsible for managing the players and coaches – similar to how other countries are running their programmes. In China, there is chief coach Li Yongbo. In Indonesia, there is a performance director in Rexy Mainaky. In Japan, there is head coach Park Joo-bong. And in India, there is chief coach P. Gopichand. All are former badminton greats.
“BAM has agreed that there should be separation of duties between the management and the coaching-training department,” said Dato’ Norza.
“That potential head coach will focus on improving and producing performances from the coaches and players under his charge.”
“The BAM president has started talking to several coaches, but we cannot disclose any explicit information about the candidates yet.”
“We will try to let the qualified candidate to run the department with full authority,” added Norza.
BadmintonPlanet.com’s Note, August 8,2014
Two of the most successful badminton coaches had worked in BAM before – Park Joo-bong, who led the Japanese team to Thomas Cup victory in May; and Rexy Mainaky – who guided Tontowi Ahmad – Liliyana Natsir, Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan to the 2013 world championships titles. Both coaches and two other prominent coaches – Misbun Sidek and Li Mao had eventually resigned from BAM due to unhappiness with the way BAM operates. If BAM does not eliminate politics and the shortsighted problems from its culture, no matter who they hire, no one would willing to remain in that position long enough to produce enhancing results for the Malaysian badminton team.
