BA of MALAYSIA president Datuk Nadzmi Salleh has, in the wake of Lee Chong Wei's Beijing Olympics men's singles silver medal, called for total support to ensure badminton remains world class.

Support not only from the government but also from the state affiliates to provide a steady pool of talent for the national and back-up squads.

In Nadzmi's reckoning, while it is sad that Chong Wei did not win the desired gold, his triumph should be a catalyst for the game to soar to even greater heights.

"We are a major badminton nation but to remain as one, there has to consistency in everything. So far, we have done reasonably well but I will not play politics and say that everything is perfect," said Nadzmi.

"There are so many areas that we can improve on and I mean both within BAM and the states. We have to improve our talent scouting, methods of coaching and also how we (BAM) support the players and coaches.
"We also have to contend with limited talent at the grassroots as we have to compete with so many other sports for talent from the same pool. This is an area that needs to be sorted out."

Nadzmi reckons Malaysia is focusing on too many sports to have a chance of excelling in and the number should be reduced.

The government seemed to be on the right track with the eight core sports but that has now swelled to 19, leading to Nadzmi's concern.

"To succeed, we need consistency. Implementation can improve as we go along but consistency in policies are very important.

"The same applies to BAM and the state BAs. As a sport, we may be world class but we aren't in the management aspect. So there is no consistency in the implementation of policies and this affects the running of programmes.

"Badminton is a sport we are good in but to stay there, we need assistance and I am not only talking about funding.

"We need help with talent scouting, competitions and sports science and if we get what we need, I am sure we will improve further."