Justian pledges to promote badminton
JAKARTA (JP): The International Badminton Federation (IBF) president candidate Justian Suhandinata of Indonesia said he would prioritize promoting the sport worldwide, paying particular attention to America.
"Should I be elected president, I would promote badminton so that it could gain greater popularity worldwide. I would also try to increase sponsorship and the amount of prize money for shuttlers," he told a media conference on Thursday.
"Badminton still has difficulties in gaining popularity in the United States as it's not widely known. But there are several players of Asian descent, already active in California," said Justian, who is the current IBF vice president.
"Across the entire continent, only eastern and southeastern Asian countries have achieved popular success in badminton. In Europe, only Scandinavian countries and Great Britain have made significant achievements."
Justian is running for the position of president against Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and Asian Badminton Confederation chairman Korn Dabbaransi of Thailand.
He denied accusations that he is launching an aggressive campaign, "I believe that we have to cooperate with whoever becomes the president."
"Personally, I believe that I have better qualities for the position regarding my long service in the sport, whether as a player or an official," he said.
Despite his optimism, Justian was disappointed that there were several parties who were trying to block his candidacy, due to differences in personality, as well as prejudice toward Indonesia.
"There are several parties questioning the benefits of having an IBF president from an unstable country. I must admit that Indonesia is in a bad situation now but I hadn't expected them to use that in their campaign," Justian said, declining to provide details on the parties in question.
He also turned down the possibility of rival supporters practicing money politics to buy other countries' votes.
Speaking on Tangkas' 50th anniversary, Justian said the club -- which is now sponsored by PT Indofood Sukses Mandiri Bogasari Flour Mills -- would stage an exhibition match between Tangkas Bogasari Plus and the Rest of the World after the Indonesian Open tournament in August.
"We plan to field Taufik Hidayat, Hendrawan, and Marlev Mainaky in the singles, Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan or Sigit Budiarto and Ricky Subagja paired with Endra Mulyajaya or Nova Widhianto in the doubles."
"Their opponents are likely to be Ji Xinpeng of China and Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark. We have several options for the third singles of Indian Pullela Gopichand, Roslin Hashim or Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia. For the doubles, we'll invite doubles pairs from Korea and England."
However, Justian emphasized that this was only on condition that the club gets sponsorship first.
The winners will bag US$50,000 while the losers will earn half of that.
Speaking about the new club's sponsor, Justian said that Bogasari had signed a three-year deal though he rejected to mention the figure. The contract took effect on April 1 and will end on Feb. 28 2004.
Previously, Tangkas was sponsored by Bimantara group for 10 years though that ended in 1997 due to the monetary crisis.
"I can't reveal the sponsorship figure but it's enough to double our previous budget. We can, for example, double our coaches' salary," said Justian.
"Roughly, we need some Rp 30 million ($3,000) per month to run the club. But we also have Rp 1.1 billion of deposit."
Bogasari's senior vice president for human resources and corporate affairs, Thomas Belang, said Bogasari did not expect too much from sponsoring the club in terms of financial return.
"It's part of our commitment to be more involved in sport. We'll feel very proud if Tangkas Bogasari players can make international achievements as the company will also receive positive impacts. Let's just say it is part of our marketing efforts."
Bogasari is also sponsoring next week's U-15 soccer league in Sidoarjo, East Java. (nvn)