KUALA LUMPUR – The Youth and Sports Ministry is looking to create national programmes for the 10 sports which have been shortlisted to receive extra funding for their development.
At the moment, there are only four national development programmes in Malaysia – the National Football Development Programme (NFDP), the National Rugby Development Programme (NRDP), the National Hockey Development Programme (NHDP), and the National Netball Development Programme (NNDP).
Speaking to Scoop, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh hinted that the 10 sports will also have similar programmes. However, the model and methods are still being studied by the National Sports Council (NSC).
Initially, Hannah only announced four sports that would receive extra funding for its development. The sports were weightlifting, archery, taekwondo, and shooting.
This was decided after the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games post-mortem session on November 15.
However, the list has since been expanded to include diving, badminton, cycling, squash, swimming, and athletics because some of these sports have the potential to deliver the medals at the Olympic Games.
With this in the plans, the government could probably introduce new programmes such as the National Badminton Development Programme (NBDP) and the National Diving Development Programme (NDDP) once all discussions have been finalised by the relevant stakeholders.
“The NSC already has a national development programme for sports like hockey, football, rugby, and netball and many have been asking if similar development programmes are being considered for other sports, especially those Olympic sports.
“We have a small portion of funding to start with. The format and other details are still under discussion, and there is a committee, chaired by NSC board member Suriaghandi Suppiah, along with NSC Deputy Director Jefri Ngadirin, who will oversee the rollout next year,” said Hannah to Scoop.
For Hannah, this is a long-term strategy to ensure Malaysia consistently produces new talent across each of the listed sports, especially in preparation for major events like the Asian Games and the Olympic Games.
However, the development model will not be the same for every sport, and it will continuously be reviewed for improvements to ensure that the outcomes will lead to success for Malaysian sports.
“As for the format, the NFDP is currently being reviewed by the Asian Football Confederation, so we may need to look at improving all of these programmes. I don’t want all of these sports to follow the same model,” she added. – November 28, 2024