Strategies to produce new champions

I REFER to the reports “Need for speed” and “Give us five years” (StarSport, Sunday Star, June 16) on Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria’s claim that Malaysia won’t need to wait 10 to 15 years to produce another world class player like Datuk Lee Chong Wei, and that “we have all the world class facilities and coaches. We should focus on producing another top player in five years.”

BAM must review whether the current training methods place too much emphasis on getting short-term results and should also be willing to invest more time and money to develop grassroots talent in our schools and clubs. For this, I believe the Education Ministry is working with BAM to identify students who have potential to be great athletes.