Badminton: A source of pride but for how long?

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.