To me, there is no better sport than badminton, where Malaysians have truly shone as world class players since the 1950s. It is as Malaysian as nasi lemak, roti canai and char kway teow.
For my generation, we grew up watching greats like Tan Yee Khan, brothers Tan Aik Huang and Aik Mong, and the heroes of my youth, Punch Gunalan and Ng Boon Bee. I recall most fondly how the family would gather to watch their matches telecast by RTM. Even watching on a black and white television did not dim the excitement or make it less heart-pounding.
That is the magic of badminton. It is the rare racquet game where there is no ball; instead players fight to control a rather temperamental feather projectile called the shuttlecock.
No other game requires players to master deft footwork to ably cover the court, jump like frogs to smash the shuttlecock with full arm strength and at high speed, and deliver precise and deceptive net play strokes with the flick of the wrist.
In the 1980s and 1990s, we had the magnificent Sidek brothers – Misbun, Razif, Jalani, Rahman, and Rashid – who won glory for the country in major tournaments like the All-England, World Cup and the Olympics.
Other players of that generation who stood out include Wong Choong Hann and Foo Kok Keong, who became the first Malaysian to be ranked number one in 1991.
And then we had the much loved and admired Datuk Lee Chong Wei. Regarded as one of the greatest badminton players of all time, in May 2023, Lee was inducted, together with his greatest rival and friend Lin Dan, into the Badminton World Federation Badminton Hall of Fame.
After his retirement in 2019, Malaysian badminton was in the doldrums for a while until we saw the rise of new players who are now household names. Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik became the nation’s first ever world badminton champions after winning the men’s doubles title at the 2022 World Championships.
Pearly-Thinaah have become national darlings, bringing much attention to female players in the sport. So, too, newly-crowned mixed doubles world champions Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei.
Making their mark are men’s double pairs like third-ranked Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, eighth-ranked Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun, and the more recently formed Wan Arif Wan Junaidi and Yap Roy King duo who are ranked 20.
The troubled Lee Zii Jia has dropped to number 44, but we have a rising star in Leong Jun Hao who is ranked 21st in the world and has overtaken Lee as Malaysia’s No. 1 men’s singles player.
For all their hard work and dedication, it has been, as The Star put it, “raining rewards” for Tang Jie and Ee Wei as well as Thinaah and Pearly.
Tang Jie and Ee Wei received RM300,000 from the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), RM100,000 from Yonex, and RM60,000 from Affin Bank. Pearly and Thinaah’s rewards comprised RM112,500 from BAM, RM50,000 from Yonex, and RM30,000 from Affin Bank.
If these players continue to do well, they will surely get lucrative endorsement deals and could retire as very well-off celebrities just like how Chong Wei did. And kudos to them because they truly deserve it.
It looks like badminton is the only sport where Malaysian players can become celebrities and wealthy because it is truly embraced by a vast majority of Malaysians who can see how hard they train and play to win in a very competitive field.
There is absolutely no doubt that these are my fellow citizens with the Jalur Gemilang and Malaysia emblazoned on their shirts whose names I can pronounce and support wholeheartedly.
They are totally homegrown, honed over many years by intense training with no shortcuts taken. Their coaches may be foreign but they, as representatives of the nation, are full-fledged Malaysians.
When we were in the doldrums, BAM thankfully did not attempt to hire foreign players to fill the gap.
Datuk Rashid Sidek’s opinion on this is note-worthy.
He told The Star in July that while several sports in Malaysia were looking to strengthen their national teams with heritage or naturalised athletes, badminton was not one of them because of the country’s long-standing reputation as one of the sport’s global powerhouses since the 1950s.
We all now know what the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have done – recruiting seven heritage players from South America and elsewhere for the national team, claiming they had been approved by FIFA to play against Vietnam in a crucial Asian Cup Group F qualifier in June.
But now that FIFA has turned around to accuse FAM of fraud and imposed hefty fines and suspension, this quick fix has grown into an epic scandal of international embarrassment. FAM probably thought they could get away with it since this method of recruitment has been widely practised in other countries.
Malaysia Aquatics is apparently exploring options to bring in heritage swimmers to boost the national squad. So, too, the Malaysia Basketball Association. They want to enlist naturalised players to strengthen the team ahead of the SEA Games in Thailand later this year.
Now, football and basketball clubs all over the world are notoriously famous for recruiting foreigners to pad up their teams, but is that how we want to achieve sports greatness – on the backs of foreign labour?
I sincerely hope sports organisations rethink this hiring method after the FAM debacle. As Rashid says, it’s better to concentrate on our own development system.
Consider what China is doing. President Xi Jinping, who is a big football fan, said 10 years ago that he wanted to see the national team become one of the world’s best.
At that time, China was 81st in the FIFA world rankings. But the government didn’t go for quick fixes and shortcuts to get ahead. Instead, it launched a three-stage plan to make the country a “world football superpower” by 2050.
Despite setbacks like the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been progress, such as getting millions of young people to play the sport regularly. To do this, football pitches are accessible all over the country, supported by upscale community football projects.
BAM, too, has a plan. It has announced its grassroots strategy to develop talent. Called Tangkis 2030, it aims to recruit talents at 13 instead of 16.
The five-year plan’s immediate goals are to win the Thomas Cup next year and an Olympic gold medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
I think we already have our world class players who have a very good shot at winning both goals, so shouldn’t the plan be longer than five years? We seriously need a long-term plan because my beloved badminton could be threatened by that hot new game called pickleball, which is taking the world by storm.
Malaysia is already the No.1 pickleball country in Asia and it is taking over badminton courts. Now, that is a development that BAM should take careful note of. Please protect and nurture the game that is really more beautiful than football!
The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
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