KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Association of Dodgeball (MAD) are set to kick-off development programmes at the grassroots after receiving RM50,000 from Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh.
Hannah said the grant would help inspire efforts to promote the sport more aggressively and urged Government Linked Companies (GLC) that have budgets for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to contribute towards the sports sector.
“Participating in team sports is certainly expensive because it involves many players. That is why such sports need support from all parties and on behalf of the Youth and Sports Ministry urge GLCs with CSR budget to come forward an invest in sports.
“For those (GLCs) who do not know which sport to pick, they can come to my office and the ministry can recomend which association or sport to support or which sport can align with the GLC’s nature of business,” she said after handing the flag to the National dodgeball team that will be participating in the 2024 World Dodgeball Championships in Austria, next month.
Hannah acknowledged that it would be difficult for sports like Dodgeball to secure sponsorship compared to popular sports like badminton or football because these sports have their own followers and supporters.
Meanwhile, MAD President Datuk V. Radhakrishnan welcomed Hannah’s call for more GLCs to come forward and support the development of sports in the country.
“…sponsorship is needed because we do send our team overseas many times and next month we are sending our team to the World Championship in Austria. So the RM50,000 which Hannah has said just now, we use part of it for the expenses.
“We will win the men’s gold. I am quite confident because we have won the men’s gold for the last three times. So we are going in as the defending champion,” he said.
