TV CHANNEL FOR MALAYSIAN SPORTS COMING

BY AZMAN UJANG

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 (Bernama) -- A television channel dedicated to Malaysian
sports and local sports role models is expected to be launched by the end of the
year.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran ibni Almarhum Tuanku
Ja'afar said OCM and Astro, the pay TV operator, were finalising the details of
the channel which would cover domestic sports as well as regional and
international sports in which Malaysians are participating.

Tunku Imran said a tv sports channel was the "missing link" in the country's
efforts to develop sports to higher levels.

"All our tv in terms of sports focus on international events. So what we
desperately need and this is what OCM is talking to Astro is a sports channel
that focuses on the domestic sports and building up the role models," he told
Bernama in an interview.

He cited the example of the popularity of squash in Malaysia.

"Why is now squash is so popular? Because everyone is basing themselves on
Nicol David," he said of Malaysia's world No. 1 squash player.

"The girls want to play squash because they want to be Nicol David, so I
think role models are important and television is crucial to that," he said.

Tunku Imran said he first approached Ahmad Shabery Cheek when the
latter was still Information Minister about establishing the sports channel via
RTM.

Radio [and] Television of Malaysia or RTM is a Malaysian state-owned public
broadcaster. It both owns and operates a number of radio and television stations
in Malaysia

But this could not be done as RTM's channels were not yet digitalised but it
could be done easily with Astro. Shabery is now Youth and Sports Minister.

He said as an example, the sports channel might not necessarily cover only
the Malaysian Squash Open but the Spanish Squash Open because Malaysian players
are participating.

This would also mean coverage of sports like badminton, hockey, sepak takraw
and others.

Tunku Imran also said that what many people did not realise was that
Malaysia was actually a successful sporting nation although the country had yet
to win its first ever 0lympic gold medal.

"I know we haven't won that elusive Olympic gold but we are a successful
sporting nation nonetheless".

To prove his point, Tunku Imran said he had been going round meeting his
counterparts from other nations and was recently in Bangladesh, a nation of over
126 million people.

"Bangladesh has a population of over 120 million and I asked them how many
people did they have in the Olympics and they said they have a handful but all
of them were actually wildcard entries.

"They did not have any qualifier for the Olympics who meet the minimum
standards. Malaysia with a population of 26 million had 26 individual athletes
who qualified in 11 sports," he said.

Tunku Imran said many other countries bigger than Malaysia could not
produce
as many Olympic qualifiers, including India which struggled to get qualifiers.

In Malaysia's case, it had done very well in those 11 sports and all that
needed to be done was for the athletes to build up on it.

"We have got to support them and support those 11 sports and ensure that
they get enough domestic competitions. Then we have to ensure that the very top
ones get international exposure and the best coaching, we'll produces those
medals one day.

"To me that is more the success than just the medals, to get to qualify is
already a magnificient achievement," he said.

-- BERNAMA