It’s only January of 2022, yet we’ve already received more bad news than good news. One of the recent unfortunate things includes our Malaysia only star and hope for the badminton men’s singles player, Lee Zii Jia, quitting the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
However, the action of our young and talented player, Zii Jia, to go independent in his badminton career has caused him to be banned for participating in any international badminton tournament for a total period of 2 years.
So, why and how could BAM do that? Well, according to Datuk Seri Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos, the Deputy President of BAM, in the event where the players who signed the contract issued by BAM want to leave the national training centre, BAM is allowed to take punitive measures to such players, among which is not to register such players to international tournaments for the next 2 years.
Coming from the perspective of BAM, seeing the best asset you’ve invested in training since he was 13 years old leaving the national team can be disappointing. However, many Malaysians still think that such treatment by the BAM is unfair to Zii Jia. And we couldn’t agree more. Why? Because the career span of an athlete is short, to ban a player for 2 years may just break his career.
Many netizens also believe that BAM is making such rash decisions out of commercialised interests. If you don’t already know, huge organisations such as BAM will have big-time sponsors giving BAM money, equipment and other material and non-materialistic stuff. And the decision of Zii Jia to resign from the association will indefinitely affect BAM’s sponsorship deals. Having most of the sponsors pull out from the association will cause substantial financial damage to BAM, which is why banning Zii Jia for 2 years seem like BAM’s last struggling attempt to tie him back to the association.
There are many reasons why Zii Jia decided to leave the association. One of the most prominent reasons is probably because he could no longer take the pressure in and from BAM. Among other reasons include wanting his coach, training regimen, tournament schedule, and sponsorship deals.
However, do Zii Jia deserves the ban from registering to the international tournament? The answer is a 100% no. Why? Because such a decision will bring harm to the player and the nation’s interest. It’s a lose-lose situation!
There are many things that BAM could’ve done instead of banning Lee Zii Jia over 2 years in joining any international tournament. As a solution, perhaps BAM can negotiate with Zii Jia to take a portion of their sponsorship while allowing him to have his couches and training regimen, as well as his participation in international tournaments.
The mission of BAM is to enhance national badminton sports performance and not to expect to have any commercial returns on their investments. Many Malaysians, including ‘Bossku’, Dato’ Sri Najib Razak, and Lee Chong Wei, the former nation’s no. 1 badminton player, believe that Lee Zii Jia and BAM should try and resolve this issue peacefully for the nation’s interest, as well as their own.
In the many opinions on this incident, the real concern of many Malaysians is that Lee Zii Jia might just quietly seek citizenship in another country, as Malaysia is famously known for having its talent taken away from its own by other countries such as Singapore.
As a proud Malaysian who has been a fanboy of our national badminton team, having to witness such a talented player facing such harsh consequences is saddening. And I sincerely hope that Lee Zii Jia will find hope in BAM’s management in revising their decisions before losing the nation’s current no. 1 to other countries.
Lee Jasen is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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