PUTRAJAYA, April 8 (Bernama) -- The new Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob is ready relook the Sports Development Act 1997, with a view to amend or tighten the lid on any loopholes, if required.
"If there is a need, we will look at the Sports Development Act but any amendments or recommendations for additions must be forwarded to the Cabinet Committee for Sports and approved by the Cabinet," said Ismail after hosting a lunch for sports editors here Tuesday.
"My main concern is the internal politics in sports associations that is hampering sports development in the country and when the Sports Commissioner takes action, sports associations try to seek legal redress to avert such actions."
He added that there was a number of unresolved cases in the Sports Commissioner's office due to sports associations reverting to legal action.
The minister, who added that the session was to gather input from the sports writers' perspective of what need to be done to improve the administration of sports in the country, said he was ready to accept constructive criticism and was open to comments or suggestions from all parties involved in sports.
Ismail was also concerned and finds it difficult to accept or digest the 'yo''yo' performances of Malaysian athletes, especially the badminton players.
"I simply cannot understand why our players can be the best on one day and mediocre on another day. They are simply not consistent and that is a very worrying factor, especially with the Beijing Olympics around the corner.
"Our only realistic hope in the Beijing Olympics is on badminton and it is imperative for our shuttlers, especially the top ones, to produce consistent results. I'm not saying they should win every tournament but they must continuously produce good results," he added.
Ismail, who took over from Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, was certainly talking about 2007 All England men's doubles champions Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong, who are suffering a slump in performance and world number two Lee Chong Wei, touted as Malaysia's best hopes of winning medals in the Beijing Olympics, which starts on Aug 8.
"After winning the All-England last year and becoming the world number one pair, they are beginning to slip down the ranking list and have failed to win titles this year," he said.
Despite being the defending champions, the pair lost in the first round during the All-England and also failed to make any impact in the subsequent Swiss Open while their ranking has dropped from first to fifth in the Badminton World Federation ranking list released last week.
-- BERNAMA
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