MINGORA: International coach Ho Khek Mong believes Pakistan’s badminton players have the potential to compete at the highest level provided they are given professional training.

Mong trained three Pakistan players — Abdul Basit, Faisal Saeed and Shahid Ahmed — for a month-long training programme at the Ampang Jaya Badminton Centre in Malaysia and was impressed with what he saw.

“They have the potential to do well at a higher level but for that they need to undergo professional training for at least six months,” Mong told Dawn from Malaysia after the players came back from training on Wednesday.

The players, meanwhile, said the training programme had helped them a lot.

“From footwork to smashing and defence, every skill [in Malaysia] is different from here,” Faisal told Dawn. “In Pakistan we give more attention to physical training while at international level, they give more attention to skills.”

Basit added: “The professional techniques which I learnt in Malaysia were all new for me and helped me greatly. But we need more training and international competitions to improve our game.”

The credit of arranging and sending the three players from Pakistan goes to Zafar Ali, the president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Badminton Association.

“I have strong belief in the badminton talent in Pakistan and I dream to see them in international events,” Zafar told Dawn. “For this programme we collected money from friends and relatives to send the players. But it is the government’s responsibility to nurture the talent by arranging international tours and trainings.”

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2016