BAM refutes claims by former players on attire for independent shuttlers

KUALA LUMPUR - The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has strongly refuted comments made by several former players regarding the use of apparel by independent players training at Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM), Bukit Kiara, here.

BAM deputy president I, Datuk V Subramaniam who was shocked by the allegations made by several former players, reaffirmed that the requirement on the use of conflicting attire by independent players in ABM had been introduced several years ago.

"This rule on the use of non-BAM sponsor apparel by independent players training at our academy is certainly not something new.

"Independent players preparing for major team events trained with us and followed this rule. It is shocking some former players have chosen to make an issue of this now,” he said in a statement today.

Subramaniam explained it was a contractual obligation to only use the sponsor’s attire at the academy.

Should BAM fail to abide by this obligation, he said it would be a clear breach of the contract and could lead to financial repercussions.

"If BAM is affected financially, it could affect our ability to support the players at the academy. We only ask that the independent players keep their attire free of competitor branding. Plain sportswear without any branding is a non-issue,” he said.

He also said that the ruling applies to apparel only and independent players are allowed to use their own sponsors’ racquets and shoes when training at the academy.

As such, Subramaniam hoped that all parties including players to put the issue to rest and focus on the upcoming Badminton World Championships 2023 in Copenhagen from Aug 21-27.

Yesterday, former national men’s singles shuttler Roslin Hashim was reported as saying that he was made to understand that the rules were still new since no issues had arisen with professional players who underwent training with BAM before.

Roslin was responding to the claim made by Team LZJ coaching director Wong Tat Meng on his Instagram post that he was really surprised and felt like he was being 'bullied' by "big shots" considering that the rules were enforced ahead of the world meet in Copenhagen.

In the meantime, professional men’s singles player, Lee Zii Jia, in the comments section of Tat Meng's post, said: "Don't say that I'm 'big-headed' for not coming to training... it's so hard to be LZJ, it's all my fault, I'm dizzy." - BERNAMA