Head Coach Beh Lee Wei has admitted to the media that she wants to send our players out to play more WTT events but it is difficult for the Table Tennis Association of Malaysia to support itself without the help of extra funding. She urged the government to support TTAM as she believes that it would ease their route of sending players out more often. She also regretted that they were not able to get the Olympic slot through rankings as Malaysian players didn't play enough international tournaments to accumulate enough points to boost their rankings. As a result, they could only fight for the one slot offered in the South East Asian Regional Olympic Qualifications which is very difficult. The low rankings also prevented Malaysia from participating most of the high level WTT events such as Contenders & Star Contenders as there are simply not enough slots for low ranked players. This is why Malaysia can only play in Feeders but even so the number of tournaments participated in limited due to budget constraints. My thoughts: I am glad that the coaches finally answered to question on why Malaysia never participate in international tournaments. It is sad to finally know the truth. Malaysian table tennis players are good, but they aren't give much opportunities to shine due to lack of budget. I really hope that the government can take our sports seriously and provide more assistance to TTAM.
Those who are interested to read the full Chinese article may click this link to access it:
https://www.chinapress.com.my/?p=3929161 ( original article in Chinese )
So, in the end it all boils down to MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Pretty mundane!
