Many people always ask me, “Why can’t our sports ecosystem be like Europe or North America?”
My response is that the above-mentioned nations sports systems are mainly fully professional. They hire full-time CEO’s, CFO’s, Head-Coaches, Doctors, and support staff. These said positions are full-time contract staff. Let us not forget sports is also very popular in these Western nations and their consumers pay top dollar to see top-quality sports like the Champions League, NBA, Motor Sports and others.
The Malaysian sports system is still at the amateur or start-up phase. Very few clubs or associations have the funds to hire full-time professionals. Most clubs or associations rely on volunteers and committees. So on a positive aspect the spirit of volunteerism is very strong in Malaysian sports.
These same people then probed further and asked, “So if the people are mainly volunteers, how do they become better so things improve and our ecosystem can grow?” I thought that was a solid question because one of the things that we Malaysian sports people need to do better is building better awareness of our activities and events.
For example, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) does offer some outstanding world-class sports management courses to the sports associations. These courses are mainly administration, leadership, and management. In my opinion, these courses will help us all get better to grow our industry.
When putting together this article, I was lucky to get the view of Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria - OCM and Badminton Association of Malaysia President.
Tan Sri said, “We are confident these courses will expose our sports administrators to best practices all around the world and for them to adapt them locally. We believe that together with athletes and officials, sports administrators form the foundation and are crucial for the sports industry to develop. These programs for the administrators and the young generation are long-term and will undoubtedly have an impact in the future of our sports eco-system”
The reason I do what I do is because I want to see our Malaysian sports athletes and coaches on top of the global podium winning world championships and Olympic gold medals. It is also OK if they don’t win but as long as they did everything they could to achieve success. This is the message I am always telling parents when encouraging them to motivate their children to compete in Malaysian sports.
So to everybody involved in Malaysian sports, give OCM a call. I am confident their courses will give you a different dimension, set of techniques, and views on how to achieve long term sporting success.
Ben Ibrahim is a TV Commentator, Sports & Media Consultant. In his career, he has also worked for FIBA, FISU, Foxsports, and MSN-KBS.
He also set-up the Malaysia Valke Rugby Club for the Global Rapid Rugby competition.
You can contact him on his public Facebook page on his Instagram @benibrahim_
