KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM)’s development programme is finally “on fire”.

Yesterday, Perlis, one of BAM’s most dormant affiliates, revived their local tournaments with the first leg of the State Closed Junior Tournament at the Perlis BA Hall.

Three age categories – Under-12, Under-15 and Under-17 – for both the boys and girls are being staged in the tournament. The boys’ Under-15 drew an overwhelming response with 77 competitors.

BAM secretary Ng Chin Chai said their aggressive investment in the states over the last two years was bearing fruit.

“The BAM have pledged to hand out subsidies for the states to re-invent their tournaments at grassroots level. The subsidies are only given when the state organises tournaments. So far, we see more states taking up our challenge,” said Chin Chai.

He added that he was happy to see the states keeping abreast with the IT technology.

“All the results, including the junior events, are updated immediately on www.tournamentsoftware.com.

“Last year, we invited three officials from every state to attend a course to familiarise themselves with the results software. We want to develop the officials at the states too,” said Chin Chai.

With Maybank coming in a big way to sponsor the national team and the development programmes since 2011, the BAM are now able to dispense about RM100,000 to each state to revamp their programmes at junior level.

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