KUALA LUMPUR: This scenario sounds ironic; BAM looking for coaches around the world while the country's top coaches are in demand outside Malaysia.
Home products Wong Choong Hann and Tan Kim Her are coveted globally — a testament to their experience and quality.
Former BAM coaching director Choon Hann, after working in Hong Kong for 16 months, was able to impress their BA to promote him to head coach in October.
As Choong Hann rebuilds Hong Kong's coaching structure, he recruited three more Malaysians - Loh Wei Sheng (men's singles), Tan Bin Shen (men's and women's doubles) and Jeremy Gan (mixed doubles).
Hong Kong's decision to go Malaysian is to primarily win their first Olympic medal at the 2028 Los Angeles.
Bin Shen's Hong Kong move recently came as a surprise as the former BAM coach has already established himself locally, having guided numerous top Malaysian pairs, including former world champions and two-time Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik.
Wei Sheng, known for his work with Singapore's 2021 world champion, Loh Kean Yew, and rising star Jason Teh, will train the likes of Hong Kong's world No. 17 Angus Ng and world No. 21 Lee Cheuk Yiu.
Jeremy has left Japan after a six-year stint there where he guided Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino to two Olympic bronze medals (2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris), four medals at the World Championships and three All England crowns (2018, 2021, 2022).
Kim Her also had a successful stint in Japan, coaching Takuro Hoki-Yogu Kobayashi to become Japan's first men's doubles world champions in 2021 before moving to India as their doubles head coach.
Kim Her's main mission in India is to help men's doubles Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty win their first World Championships crown in Paris in August next year.
"The World Championships and the All England (in March) will be the targets for Satwik-Chirag," said Kim Her.
"The plan is also to have at least a world class pair in the mixed doubles as it will increase India's chances of doing well in the team events like the Sudirman Cup next year.
"It's not an easy job, but I am looking forward to the challenge."
Another Malaysian, Lee Wan Wah, who is currently Japan's back-up coach, is said to be in a strong position to take over the senior men's doubles coaching role vacated by Kim Her.
Elsewhere, James Chua had also broken from the norm by becoming the Czech Republic's head coach in October while former national player Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin has been Ireland's national coach since 2023.
And 2002 All England champion Hafiz Hashim has been working as a development coach at the Suchitra Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, India, where he has contract until 2026.
All this means that the production of top coaches is not exclusive to China and Indonesia, but Malaysian expertise can also be counted on around the world.
There may come a day where Malaysia's national players are beaten by foreign shuttlers trained by Malaysian coaches.