New scoring system trial to proceed: IBF

New scoring system trial to proceed: IBF

JAKARTA (Agencies): The International Badminton Federation
(IBF) council has decided to continue the trials of its new
scoring system of the best of five games in seven points (5 x 7)
until July 31, 2002.

The decision was made during the IBF annual general meeting in
Seville, Spain, in conjunction with the Sudirman and World
Championships from May 28 to June 10.

The IBF's official website www.worldbadminton.net said the
trial scoring system will be used in all World Grand Prix events,
the postponed 2000 World Grand Prix finals in August and all
stages of the 2002 Thomas and Uber Cup competitions, including
qualifying rounds in Cuba, the Netherlands and Australia (the
venue for the finals has yet to be determined).

The 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, will also
use the new system, with many of badminton's continental bodies
also requesting permission to test the 5 x 7 scoring system in
their circuit tournaments including in the upcoming Malaysia and
Indonesia Opens.

IBF's newly elected president Korn Dabbaransi told The Nation
daily in Bangkok that the new scoring system would be reviewed
during IBF's general assembly next May in Malaysia.

The new system -- in which a player can win a match in the
best of five games where each game should be competed in seven
points -- will replace the existing best of three games in 15
points each system.

Trials have already been conducted at many levels, including
the 2000 World Junior Championships in Guangzhou, China, the
Welsh International, Copenhagen Masters, the French Open and the
Swiss Open, which became the first World Grand Prix event to make
the change in March this year.

If these trials prove successful, the IBF council will propose
a permanent change during the 2002 annual general meeting where
delegates will make the final decision.

If adopted, this will represent the most radical reform
badminton has ever seen.

Andrew Ryan, IBF's director of marketing and development,
relishes the new opportunities such a change will bring: "When
addressing the IBF council in Lausanne last year, the
International Olympics Committee (IOC) president, Juan Antonio
Samaranch, emphasized the need for sports to adapt to the modern
sporting era, and stated that in future there would be two kinds
of sport -- those that fit with television, and those that did
not.

"Badminton is entering a crucial period -- we can't begin to
compete with major world sports for exposure unless changes are
made to what many perceive as an outmoded and tired product."

Ryan continued: "We believe -- and early indications support
this -- that 5 x 7 produces a system which spectators and TV
audiences will find more exciting and easier to follow. On the
whole it reduces match lengths, reduces the pressure on players,
and produces more critical points and therefore exciting matches,
thus improving the appeal to TV companies and spectators." (yan)