KUALA LUMPUR – The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Taliban-led Afghanistan has assured the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) not to fear them and asked BAM to be open to collaborating and sharing their knowledge in improving the Afghan badminton landscape.
Speaking to Scoop, Afghanistan’s NOC secretary-general Irshadulhaq Sadiqi said that his committee had planned to meet BAM during their visit to Malaysia in November this year, which was hosted by the Education Ministry (MoE).
However, their efforts to reach BAM were unsuccessful as their request was rejected by MoE which cited that the national body was not interested in meeting them.
“We admire BAM – the way they manage the national shuttlers and the necessary funds to send them to tournaments. They also have a strong reputation in our country for producing talented players who have won Olympic medals for Malaysia over the years.
“To be honest, we want the Afghanistan Badminton Federation (ABF) to be like BAM, which is why we want to meet them and learn how they operate so we can implement similar practices in our country.
“We even requested a meeting, but our application was rejected.
“I hope BAM understands that we are not what the Western media portrays us to be. We are a progressive nation and are doing our best to improve the standards of badminton in our country.
“We have never tried to politicise sports. Recently, we even successfully organised an international badminton championship, which saw a high number of participants from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan as well as other nations like Russia.
“All we want is to gain knowledge and improve ourselves so there is no need for BAM or anyone to fear us. We also want to build facilities, provide equipment and shuttlecocks, and give the best to our players.
“That’s why we are desperately seeking a partnership with BAM,” said Sadiqi when contacted.
At the same time, Sadiqi revealed that the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has gradually begun to acknowledge the ABF for their efforts in developing the sport in Afghanistan, with the potential of sanctioning their tournaments in the coming years.
“We are really grateful to the BWF, as they are impressed with our blueprint and our plans for the development of the sport over the next five years. We also appreciate that they have enabled our players to compete in several BWF-sanctioned tournaments.
“Our players are now preparing for the 6th Iran Junior International Series and the 33rd Iran Fajr International Challenge next year. We are excited to see how far they can progress in these tournaments, as they have been training vigorously.
“Our only challenge now is securing proper funding to elevate ourselves, as our current administration has not yet been recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“Recently, we had to rely on the Turkish government through their Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency to provide sports equipment for 170 of our players, and we truly appreciate their efforts.
“Insha-Allah, I hope that through our efforts, the IOC’s perception of our administration and government will one day change,” Sadiqi added.
Since the return of the Taliban to power in Kabul in 2021, it has been reported that the IOC has been urging Afghan authorities to guarantee “access to sport in complete safety for women and young girls.” – December 31, 2024