KUALA LUMPUR – The Kuala Lumpur Badminton Association (KLBA) is ready to host the Super 100 Masters again next year if given the opportunity.
Its president, Datuk Seri Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos, said there were many challenges in hosting the event, but that does not deter the association from wanting to do so again.
“Organising the tournament for the first time was exciting for us, but it was also challenging. The main challenge was the cost of organising it.
“But considering the fact that this is an international championship and KLBA has been given the honour of hosting, the experience of working with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) was exciting.
“If we are given the chance to host this tournament again next year, we will do it,” he said, while declining to divulge how much KLBA spent on hosting the tournament.
Jahaberdeen, who is also Badminton Association of Malaysia deputy president, added that KLBA was awarded the hosting rights of the Super 100 Masters after a successful bidding process with the national body.
“The BWF will award the tournament to the national body, and then it will be opened up to the state associations. Interested state associations can bid for the right to host it, and this year we were honoured to receive it.
“Now that we have the experience of hosting such an international tournament, we want to do it again. We have ideas on how we can improve it for next year,” said Jahaberdeen.
Among the other challenges that KLBA faced in hosting the tournament was attracting big names, but Jahaberdeen said it is all a matter of timing.
“The German Open (Hylo Open) was also held at the same time as the KL Masters, so there was a scheduling issue there. We could not get the best players to compete here, so maybe next year we can look to improve on that.
“The location is also something we can improve on. Even though the Titiwangsa Stadium was great in terms of facilities, the location may not be the best. However, we will discuss this in our post-mortem meeting,” he said. – November 6, 2023