Maldives Badminton Association has revealed that they have come to an agreement with an Indonesian coach, to train the Maldives national badminton team.

Association’s president, Moosa Nasheed made the announcement while speaking at ceremony to mark the completion of a training program.

The coach will be here on January 13, he added.

He said that the coach’s work will be to train the players for the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) 2019, as well as for other such various tournaments.

Moosa also said that the coach will remain with the team in 2020, and train the players for the Tokyo Olympics.

He further revealed that the Executive Committee of the Association has held discussions, and short-listed two male and female players to represent the country in the Olympics.

Noting that the coach has worked in various academies in India and Singapore, Moosa said that he is able to bring out a high-performance from the players.

He further noted that the players were unable to produce better results in the badminton dividion at the last IOIG due to “lack of international experience”.

“The players lacked the ability to handle such pressure,” he said, adding that the new coach will work to solve these issues, training players to get used to the pressures.

The Association just completed a three-month training program in order to select players for the 2019 Indian Ocean Island Games. The training program was led by an experienced Malaysian trainer, and 22 players- 12 female players and 10 male players- have been short-listed for the national team.