KUALA LUMPUR: BA of Malaysia (BAM) acting president Datuk V. Subramaniam said he was shocked by the news of two Malaysians banned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Former national player Liew Daren and National Sports Institute performance analyst Jerry Gan were banned for 12 months and three months respectively from badminton activities after being found guilty of being involved in betting-related activities from 2018-2021.
"This is shocking news, especially Daren, after serving the country for so many years, it is sad and not good," Subramaniam told Timesport when contacted.
"The BWF rule is clear that no one should be involved in illegal activities especially involving betting on badminton games."
Subramaniam added that BAM will conduct regular briefings for its shuttlers to warn them against illegal activities.
"It (the briefings) has been going on from time to time. It's nothing new, the management has always explained this to the players," Subramaniam said.
"If proactive steps are needed to curb this issue, they will be taken, but we will wait for the report from BWF first.
"We will discuss this with our council and decide the next step to make sure this case doesn't happen again."
Meanwhile, former BAM high performance director, Datuk James Selvaraj, said that Daren and Jerry have tarnished the image of the nation.
"Daren was a decent player for the country, and he was even the assistant coach to Lee Zii Jia at one point.
"I was really surprised to hear that he has been banned, I never expected this from him. Now that these two have been banned, the badminton world will lose some respect for the country."