Badminton feast opens in Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Thomas and Uber Cups kicked off here on Friday with Indonesia's women taking on defending champion China in an seemingly unlikely bid by the host to regain the trophy it last won in 1996.

However, there was good news for the championships when the IBF appearing to accede to the demands of TV stations not having rights to broadcast the events that they be allowed to broadcast more of the games. The U-turn by the IBF came following a threat by the TV stations concerned that they would boycott the tournament.

Twenty four teams -- 12 each in the Thomas and Uber Cups -- from 16 countries will be battling it out for world badminton glory until May 16 at the Bung Karno Indoor Stadium.

The participating countries are Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Denmark, England, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa, Thailand and the United States.

There will be four matches in the Thomas Cup and four matches in the Uber Cup on Friday.

With the best field of players in the world, China's women are clear favorites over the Indonesians in Group A, and in the tournament as a whole, to retain the trophy for fourth time after taking it from Indonesia in 1998.

"It will be difficult to defeat China," Indonesian team manager Christian Hadinata said here on Thursday.

Other matches in the Uber Cup are Japan against Malaysia in Group Y, Chinese Taipei against South Africa in Group X and South Korea against Canada in Group Z.

The Thomas Cup's opening matches will pit four-time champion China against the United States, and South Korea against New Zealand in Group B, five-time champion Malaysia against South Africa in Group C and Denmark against England in Group D.

Indonesia will open its campaign to take a record sixth championship in a row against the United States on Saturday, when the host will face a potentially emotional clash against Tony Gunawan, a former Indonesian Olympic star now playing for the visitors.

Tony and Candra Wijaya earned Indonesia a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics.

While the women have painted themselves grim prospects, their male compatriots have been encouraged after winning two titles at the recent Asian Championship in Kuala Lumpur, with Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro managing to set up an all Indonesia final.

Meanwhile, the IBF looks set to soften its stance over tournament coverage by allowing boycotting TV stations to take pictures inside the hall.

G. Sulistyanto, the chairman of the organizing body, said that IBF understood the demand from the seven broadcasters, who had complained about excessive restrictions imposed by the IBF on their coverage, and would provide a special stall for their cameras.

However, the stall would be situated at a certain spot and the TV stations would have to take turns in filming, he said after a meeting with senior IBF officials Punch Gunalan, Andrew Ryan and Keith Hawthorne late on Thursday.

Earlier representatives from ANTV, Indosiar, Lativi, RCTI, SCTV, TV7 and TPI met with Ishadi S.K. from host broadcaster TransTV. After the meeting, they then filed their demand with the IBF.