Badminton feast opens in Jakarta

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.