The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) may have no choice but to postpone the upcoming Malaysia Open and Malaysia Masters due to the uncertainties faced by the restrictions of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

The Malaysia Open (March 31-April 4) and Malaysia Masters (April 6-11) were scheduled to be part of a tournament bubble, similar to the recent Bangkok trilogy and upcoming Europe bubble consisting of the Swiss Open, German Open and All-England Championships.

But with the MCO not confirmed to conclude on February 18, the national body are running out of time to make the necessary arrangements to stage both events.

“There are many protocols and standard operating procedures to study, and a lot of preparation needs to be done to have the tournaments ready by the scheduled dates. We feel that time is not on our side as there are many uncertainties.

“We hope the world body will be open to postponing the Malaysia Open, instead of cancelling the tournament as it is part of the Olympic qualifiers,” BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh told News Straits Times.

The BAM are currently waiting for feedback from the Badminton World Federation (BWF) before deciding on the status of both events.

Last year, the Malaysia Masters was one of the five events that managed to take place under the BWF calendar.

The likelihood is that, if the Malaysia Open gets postponed, this year’s Malaysia Masters could be cancelled as it is not part of the Olympic qualifiers.

The BWF already have a jam packed calendar and will struggle to fit in any unexpected changes as it stands.

Meanwhile, national coaching director Wong Choong Hann is asking for national number one men’s singles Lee Zii Jia to be given time to fix his game.

Lee dropped one rung on the world rankings to 11th after a disappointing outing at the Bangkok Tour, which saw him lose in the last eight of Thai 1 and the first round of Thai 2.

He then lost all his group matches at the 2020 BWF World Tour Finals to Viktor Axelsen, Chou Tien-chen and Anthony Ginting.

Wong also believes men’s singles chief Hendrawan is the right man to steer the 22-year-old back on track.