Its deputy president Mohamad Norza Zakaria told FMT that it was evident in the recently concluded Rio Olympics that the performance of national badminton athletes had improved.

“We (BAM) took a two-pronged strategy in facing the tournament — the first was how to prepare Chong Wei for the Olympics, and also to identify who is capable of replacing him (when he retires).

“Rio witnessed the rise of other talented young players such as double’s pair Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong and mixed doubles Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying. When new icons appear, it would attract the younger generation to get involved in badminton,” he said.

Norza was responding to former national badminton coach Misbun Sidek’s recent remark that Malaysia was still unable to produce gold-medal producing athletes due to a “lack of a developed and complete training system”.

Misbun had said that Lee was not to blame for failing to deliver Malaysia a gold medal in Rio and also claimed that the sports faced funding issues. In contrast, he said, funding was in abundance in China when it came to coaching their top badminton players.

Norza also dismissed this allegation, saying funding was not a “crucial factor” or “main problem” that the BAM faced.

“To me, he (Misbun) is still a badminton legend and we accept his criticism in a positive light. We note that in trying times, BAM had received sponsorship from big companies like Celcom,” he said, adding that BAM was on the “right track” to ensuring the quality of badminton was on par with countries such as China.

“It is not always about the money, but about providing basic facilities and the latest technology. It is also about having world-class coaches and we have Morten Frost Hansen, Hendrawan, Tey Seu Bock, and the like (to train players).”

He said the achievement of the national badminton team was something to be proud of.

Malaysia ended its 2016 Rio Olympics mission with four silver medals and a bronze. Three of the silvers were from badminton.