Next time will be better

The 2004 Thomas and Uber Cup international badminton championships concluded on Sunday with China emerging as the winner of both coveted cups. It is an extraordinary achievement for China, scoring four consecutive victories in the Uber Cup, with nine wins in total.

China's success in the Thomas Cup tourney has been expected since it last won the trophy in 1990. With another major trophy, the Sudirman Cup for mixed teams, already in its hands, this newest victory establishes China as the world's foremost superpower in badminton .

This is not surprising. It is the fruit of a combination of a continuous and consistent training program, careful observation in talent scouting, and a guarantee of the athletes' future once they are past their heyday.

In contrast to China, Indonesia barely meets the above three prerequisites. We have a National Badminton Center to groom athletes, but the talent scouting process has yet to be perfected. Conflicts of interest among clubs and the Badminton Association of Indonesia's (PBSI) provincial branches remain strong and sometimes influence the selection of athletes required to join the training center. The uncertainty of the athletes' futures after retirement has discouraged many youngsters to pick sport as a career.

Indonesia's defeat in both events has been predicted. Without any strong players in both the men's and women's teams, it would have been a miracle if we had retained the Thomas Cup for the sixth consecutive time, as was expected earlier, not to mention winning back the Uber Cup.

However, there is no need to blame either the players or the coaches for the defeat. Instead, credit must be given to them for fighting hard in the event. And, the decision to deploy young and upcoming shuttlers must be fully supported.

The strong fighting spirit shown by Adrianti Firdasari, of the war-torn Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province, is a good sign that all she -- and other girls in the team -- need is more opportunities to prove themselves in international tournaments. PBSI chairman Chairul Tanjung's statement that he would not deploy players to big tournaments, but only to one-star to three-star events, was the right decision. It is important to boost those young athletes' morale in events where they have a chance to win. Once they have managed to show a constant performance, as is expected, they can be sent to bigger tournaments.

In the men's sector, Sony Dwi Kuncoro proved his reliability as a first singles. Despite his defeat to Lin Dan of China in the group, Sony managed to overcame Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia in the quarterfinals, and even Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark in the semifinals.

Taufik Hidayat, who was expected to be the team's leader, has shown a constant performance. Newcomer Simon Santoso also showed his potential, although he had to bow out to 1997 World Champion Peter Rasmussen of Denmark, thus sending Indonesia out of the event.

PBSI must work hard to groom the shuttlers and recruit more young talents so that they can eventually emerge as champions. The hard work is necessary, considering the upcoming Athens Olympics in August, and other major tournaments that lie ahead.

The biennial event itself was considered a success despite some problems prior to the championships, including a boycott threat from seven television stations against TransTV, that held the right to broadcast the event.

No less an important development: Indonesian spectators displayed much more civilized behavior and higher sportsmanship than at the last Thomas Cup event, which the country hosted 10 years ago. And this time, they consistently supported the national shuttlers, irrespective of whether they were leading or trailing their opponents.

Even when the national Uber Cup team lost, spectators applauded and banged boom twins (bolster-like balloons) to show their appreciation of the game, as well as to honor the winners.

When Indonesia lost to Denmark in the decisive semifinals, they did not throw things at last singles player, Simon Santoso but gave him their support instead. Even when the Indonesian squad quickly returned to the players' changing room, the spectators continued to applaud, showing their appreciation of Denmark's victory also.

The Thomas and Uber Cup championships are over. Some players went home with smiles on their faces; others had to swallow the bitter pill of defeat. However, we have all learned a valuable lesson from this event and hope that next time it will be better still.