PETALING JAYA: Stay on and win medals for the country.
This is the message by Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) acting president Datuk V. Subramaniam to the country’s top women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (pic), who are yet to renew their contracts with the national body.
There are rumours that world No. 5 Pearly-Thinaah are in talks with sponsors outside BAM and may leave the association to turn independent.
Subramaniam though is optimistic that the pair will decide to stay on.
“It is true that Pearly-Thinaah have not signed a new contract with us yet,” said Subramaniam.
“We are currently still having discussions, so it’s a matter of time that it will be sorted out.
“There is no exact time frame yet though (on when they will decide). We are also giving some leeway for them to think carefully. But they are still with us.”
Subramaniam also said that BAM have invested heavily in the duo and hope that they will repay the association.
“The purpose of us investing in players since their younger days is for them to stay here,” said Subramaniam.
“We have invested in states to develop the players and then continued taking care of them very well after they joined BAM.
“We have invested a large sum of money and our expectations are for them to stay on, work hard and win medals for the country.”
Pearly, 25, and Thinaah, 27, created history by becoming the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to reach the semi-finals in the Olympics in Paris last August.
The duo also captured the 2021 Swiss Open, 2022 French Open and 2024 Hong Kong Open titles and won gold in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
This year, Pearly-Thinaah’s best achievement was finishing runners-up in the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta in January.
The pair are set to play an important role next in the Sudirman Cup from April 27-May 4 in Xiamen, China.
