New badminton rankings by IBF trigger discord

JAKARTA (JP): The latest world badminton rankings issued by the International Badminton Federation have sparked controversy for the federation's failure to place any Indonesian shuttler in a number one position.

"Quite strange," was how Indonesia's head coach, Indra Gunawan, reacted when he learned of the rankings on May 7.

"That China's Dong Jiong has taken over Joko Suprianto's number one men's singles spot does not surprise me very much," the 49-year-old coach said. To some extent, Joko's performances are still like the swing of a pendulum, he said.

But, Indra said, it was hard to swallow the news that Malaysia's duo of Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock knocked world champions Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky off the number one pedestal.

"Ricky and Rexy rarely suffer defeats. How come?" Indra, the former Asian Games men's doubles winner told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The Indonesian tandem, who won the most titles of all the world's best pairs in the last two years, were placed second behind the Malaysians whom they often beat.

The rankings, based on a new system to decide who qualifies for the upcoming Olympic Games in Atlanta, reflect the younger generation coming up on the heels of the more established players.

In the men's singles ranking, China's young gun Dong Jiong shot to number one. Indonesian foursome of Joko, Hariyanto Arbi, Alan Budikusuma and Ardy Wiranata found themselves pushed down to number two, four, six and seven, respectively.

In the women's singles ranking, China's Ye Zhaoying remains number one with South Korea's Bang Soo-hyun still tiptoeing right behind her. But Indonesia's Olympic gold medalist queen Susi Susanti took one step down from number two to three.

An emotion-filled Indra, after pausing for a moment, said this might have to do with a time reduction clause, which was confirmed by IBF vice president Justian Suhandinata.

The clause's time frame is from April 1, 1995, to March 31 this year. Throughout the period, shuttlers are encouraged to participate in at least eight tournaments in order to increase their chances of qualifying for the Atlanta Olympics.

Reduction

The clause, Justian told the Post, reduces the points a shuttler collected systematically over that period. For instance, 10 points won by a player in May 1995 could drop to three 10 months later in March. However, the 10 points would remain if a player won them last March.

Hence, players who sport showier feathers in the months leading to the Atlanta Olympics will have higher rankings than those who went uphill only in the early months of the period.

"This keeps their rankings really updated because it measures how far players progress in each tournament," Justian said. Points are awarded according to the grading of each tournament and there are bonus points for beating a higher ranked player.

The number one spot has the advantage of getting a bye. Another advantage of being in the top two is that both of them will always be seeded separately, Justian said.

"But our players are still in the top four so I don't think that we are disadvantaged," Justian said. "The system has been designed so that those in the top four will not meet each other before they reach the semifinals."

"The case is different if their ranks slip to between number five and number eight because their opponents will be decided in a draw. They may have to take on higher ranked players in the early rounds."

However, Justian said that this new system was only 80 percent transparent. He suggested that each IBF member obtain the computer program in order to calculate for itself the rankings of its own players.

"This way they won't have to question the fairness of the new system." (arf)