KUALA LUMPUR: Women's badminton has never really made it big in Malaysia but a few former internationals are hoping to change that narrative.
Former national coach Wong Pei Tty and her team of women's coaches have kick-started an initiative which focuses on encouraging young girls under-12 to play badminton.
Pei Tty, who is currently attached with the Perak Badminton Association (PBA), recently conducted a two-day badminton clinic in Ipoh and is already making plans to run another in Johor soon.
When contacted by Timesport, the former women's doubles head coach said: "It started off as an idea among a few of us former national players. We realised that the talent pool for female shuttlers is very small.
"This is our way of giving back and hopefully more young girls will be encouraged to pick up the sport.
"For now, it's a small step hopefully towards something big. Perhaps an all-girls badminton academy in the future.
"Over the weekend, with the assistance of PBA, we conducted two badminton clinics in Ipoh. Our target is actually to reach out to those in the B40 and M40 group but we're open to all.
"The plan now is to have our next clinic in Johor."
According to Pei Tty, it was during the Perak Closed tournament last year when she first noticed the huge difference in participation between the boys and girls.
"There were 120 entries for the boys but only 21 for the girls during the Perak Closed last year.
"As we know, badminton is not an easy sport for everyone to just get into.
"We are also learning as we go along but hopefully this effort will help a little in bridging that gap," she added.
For the first two clinics, sports equipment brand Gosen came on board as T-shirt sponsors. Pei Tty is hoping to attract more corporate sponsors which can allow them to have a wider reach.
"It will be good if more sponsors can come on board. Yes, there are many badminton academies out there that focus on development but I think no one has placed an emphasis on women's badminton.
"We're starting off small but we hope to have a big impact," Pei Tty said.
