KUALA LUMPUR — Newly appointed National Sports Institute (NSI) chief executive officer Dr Vellapandian Ponnusamy has acknowledged the need for a dedicated psychologist or mental health expert for the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), following concerns over the mental resilience of national shuttlers.
Dr Vellapandian, a sports psychologist himself, said the matter is now under review by NSI’s sports science team.
“As someone well-versed in sports psychology, I agree that a high-performance sport like badminton, which has produced world champions, needs a dedicated psychologist,” he told Scoop.
“This is definitely something on my radar, which I have just thrown to the sports science team at NSI to look into.”
His comments follow a recent Scoop report highlighting the psychological pressures faced by BAM players, particularly at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships (BAMTC) in Qingdao, China, last month, where the fear of being dropped from the national setup allegedly affected performances.
For the first time in the competition’s history, Malaysia failed to progress beyond the group stages after suffering 3-2 defeats to Hong Kong and Indonesia.
Dr Vellapandian admitted that NSI currently lacks the manpower to assign a dedicated psychologist to badminton, as existing personnel are shared across multiple high-performance sports.
“Yes, this is a challenge for us at the moment because we do not have the manpower, and our expert personnel are currently shared between sports. But I will need to find a solution to this,” he said.
Dr Vellapandian’s appointment as NSI CEO marks a return to the organisation where he began his career.
He previously served at NSI for 19 years in various roles before leading the Institute for Youth Research Malaysia (IYRES) as CEO from 2019 to 2025. He was also Malaysia’s deputy Chef de Mission at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. He replaces Ahmad Faedzal Md Ramli, whose tenure as CEO ended last month.
“This appointment means a lot to me, as my career started here at NSI as a sports science officer after graduating with a PhD in sports psychology from the University of Western Australia,” he said.
“With my years of experience in the field, I want to leave a legacy and bring NSI to the forefront of Malaysian sports and onto the international stage as well. For now, we are only known within the local sports fraternity.”
As NSI looks into the feasibility of assigning a dedicated psychologist to BAM, stakeholders will be watching closely to see if this move can help strengthen the mental resilience of Malaysia’s top shuttlers. — March 5, 2025