Badminton: A source of pride but for how long?

Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

An SMS from a friend on Monday morning reminded me that there was a major event going on in Anaheim, California. The SMS was indeed good news: the Indonesian mixed doubles pair of Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir had won the World Badminton Championship crown, the first for Indonesia in 25 years.

At many offices around the country, meetings had to be delayed and files were left piling up as badminton fans stared at their TV sets to watch the live broadcast.

People shouted "Oohhh.." when men's singles finalist Taufik Hidayat failed to return a smash from China's Lin Dan. But the crowds erupted in joy after the Indonesian won the final in straight sets, people forgetting they were at their workplaces.

Suddenly, everyone turned into commentators, giving their opinions on what men's doubles Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto should do in their encounter with America's Indonesian-born and Indonesian 2001 men's doubles world champion Tony Gunawan (who won in 2001 with Halim Heryanto) and Howard Bach.

The Indonesian pair, unfortunately, ended up bowing out to the Americans.

People's enthusiasm for the games, however, showed that badminton remains among the most popular sports for Indonesians, despite our sportspeople's sliding achievements in international events recently.

While it was great, it was also somewhat surprising to see Indonesians getting three berths in the championships finals; the last time this happened was a decade ago in Lausanne, Switzerland. At that time, Heryanto Arbi won the men's singles crown, Ricky Subagdja and Rexy Mainaky took the men's doubles title and women's doubles Finarsih and Lili Tampi came in as runners-up.

This time around, Taufik becomes the world's first men's singles shuttler to be both an Olympic gold medalist (won last year in Athens) and the world champion. He was the sixth Indonesian shuttler to win the world champion men's singles crown.

The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) should be proud of its shuttlers' achievements, particularly after coming under fire for its decision to send only 10 of the 20 players who qualified for the event.

Secretary-general MF Siregar argued at the time: "We are only sending those players with a strong certainty of making the semifinals."

PBSI chairman Sutiyoso said the association needed to be target-oriented, saying that ".. if a player is already certain on paper of being thrashed in the first round, why send them?"

Looking at the list of winners, these Indonesian players should be considered "old hands". Taufik and Nova have been on the team's lists for such major events since 1999 and Candra and Sigit first won the 1997 title. Lilyana, meanwhile, was the only newcomer.

But these victories from veterans, however sweet, mean the PBSI leadership needs some time for introspection. After all, these high caliber players may well not be around in two years' time for the next world championships, or for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

For our winners, their achievements show that they are of a world-class standard and should not be "downgraded" to compete at lower levels, such as in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Manila later this year.

They should concentrate solely on four- and five-star tournaments as well as major international events like the Thomas Cup and Asian Games next year.

Sports organizations, particularly the National Sports Council (KONI), should instead prepare the second-best players for the SEA Games and other regional events.

Such a scheme would push those still at the provincial or national level to work harder so they could compete at national or international tournaments.

Rejuvenation is a key word here -- sports organizations must keep their top athletes' dominant, while improving their up-and- comers' performance in international events.

Coaches also have to improve their knowledge of training and game psychology to help boost their athletes' performance. The PBSI's idea to have a standardized coaching method -- just like the Chinese already have -- should be supported and followed up by other sporting organizations.

Domestic competitions, meanwhile, should be conducted regularly, while talent scouting and recruitment should be an independent process without high-ranking sports officials' interference in a bid to avoid favoritism.

Only with that we will see more young players emerge, more competitions staged and more events broadcast. When this happens, make sure that you switch the TV to "mute" when watching badminton matches and keep your voice low to make your boss happy. Unless, of course, your boss is already watching.