KUALA LUMPUR: While it is good news that the Malaysia Open is now slated for November, it cannot promise the same excitement.
In fact, the BWF World Tour Super 750 event scheduled on Nov 24-29 is still subject to many layers of approval.
On Friday, the Badminton Word Federation (BWF) announced the revamped calendar, following the suspension of the 2020 season and world rankings in March amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In principle, the BA of Malaysia (BAM) have agreed to host the Malaysia Open on the new dates.
But the national body may have to follow strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) in line with the 'new normal'.
"In principle, we have agreed to host the Malaysia Open on Nov 24-29. However, nothing can be confirmed yet because we don't know what the Covid-19 situation would be like in November.
"Of course, we are happy to get the season up and running again but there are factors that need consideration.
"Firstly, we need to understand the new SOPs, we must also consider the policy of other countries on international travelling.
"At this point, we are still monitoring the global situation and are in close communication with BWF," said BAM secretary general Datuk Kenny Goh.
The Malaysia Open was originally scheduled on Mar 31-Apr 5, and BAM were already talking about new SOPs back then.
However, the coronavirus situation worsened in other countries, forcing most sporting events, including the Tokyo Olympics, to be postponed or cancelled.
"We were already talking about new SOPs and guidelines back then because we didn't want to wait until the last minute. We may have to still adhere to some of them like recording the temperature of everybody entering the venue or getting their details for contact tracing.
"We are still waiting to hear more from BWF. We will work accordingly from there.
"As much as we want to host the event, we also want to be careful to not create another problem," added Kenny.
It was only early this week, when BAM got the nod from the federal government, to allow 16 national shuttlers under the Road to Tokyo (RTT) programme to resume training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara on June 1.
