I am not sure, but it seems like the author also wants the Thomas/Uber cups HELD someplace eles occasionally. I think the author's point is that the TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS can be held elsewhere
Hello my dear, who win the cup then who will keep the cup. Thats all. If Europe country or others wants the cup, come and fight against mas/chn/ina. INDONESIA BOLEH!! MALAYSIA BOLEH!! CHINA BOLEH!!
Dont underestimate the Europeans. Look at hockey, once it was dominated by India, Pakistan and to some extend Malaysia back in the 70s. But once they revert to astro-turf, the entire game changed. Now, the Dutch, Germans, Spanish and Australians are the major powers. In badminton, all they need to do is tweak the rules here and there and it wont be long before the Europeans will catch up.
That's really a very naive thinking! Initially the author has pointed out MAS, INA and CHN will take the responsibility but in conclusion, only MAS and INA to be blamed, such an absurd conclusion?
I think there's market in USA but somehow no major effort is done to have major event in US after the successful World Championship 2005. US should be the main target for badminton to strike gold and why we have so many badminton facilities in California yet unable to held some major event is mind buggling. Why not another World Championship in USA?
Actually, it is very difficult to promote badminton through conventional (normal) methods. Conventional methods such as increasing prize money or increasing popularity in other countries are not going to be very effective. Let's talk about conventional methods first: In order to have more people taking up badminton in other countries (i.e. not Super-5 countries: denmark/malaysia/indonesia/korea/china), we have to motivate them. Since the interest is not there in the first place in non Super-5 countries, the only practical thing to do is to dangle a carrot in front of them - by increasing the prize money of badminton competitions. Come on, this is a material world, right? Ok, but in order to have more prize money, we need major sponsors. But in order to attract major sponsors, we need more audience/people to take up this sport. But in order to have more people taking up this sport, we need more prize money...... So, it's very difficult to work. It's a vicious cicle. So, I think we should have some unconventional methods to promote this sport. For example, we create controversies. Have asian players talk trash about the (lack-of) abilities of most european players (doesn't matter if its true or not)! Fire them up! Organize round tours of badminton players in non-Super-5 countries and go around challenging their population! For example, anyone who manages to steal 2 points from the badminton players will get a USD1000 reward. Etc etc etc...
The cost of playing Badminton (Shuttles) may also be one of the factor that turn European/US people away. The distributors do not help the situation either. For example: Yonex AS-40 was SGD$18 in 2002. They are now SGD$35. They may cost even more in Europe & North America, but it only costs $23 in China/Hong Kong.
And most important of all, IBM must hire a true professional manager to be their CEO (for example, like what NBA did with hiring David Stern in the 80's). Now their management are actually just all amateurs disguised as management personnel. A good example is Punch Gunalan. He is very ambitious but he doesn't have the abilities of a true professional manager. Look at his background and credentials. He was a badminton player turned bureaucrat. How can we expect him to successfully lead IBM in a marketing campaign?
Don't take the opinion expressed in the quoted 'article' too seriously because they are illogical and invalid in so many ways. I wonder who would write such a naive article and which newspaper/magazine would publish such a biased article. I just give some points (out of many) to illustrate its unreasonable thinking: 1) What is meant by no. 1 racket sport? in terms of no. of people playing, TV coverage, sponsorship money, prize money, or no. of countries participating in that sport, or ..... a combination of all? Only after you define the criteria clearly, then you can find out the reasons why badminton can or cannot be no. 1 racket sport. Maybe badminton is the no. 1 racket sport in terms of some defined criteria. 2) Whether a racket sport is a no. 1 racket sport or not has no dependent relationship upon if some particular countries are not 'allowed' to take the championship of a particular tournament. This is most absurd idea found on that article. Tennis sport is always won by several players from several countries (e.g. USA, Swiss in last 5 years) in each period over 5 to 10 years, whoever has said to disallow a particular player or country no matter it's a big or small country?! 3) Though several countries such as China, Indonesia, and Malaysia have dominated the TC championship over the last two/three decades. It's up to other countries to develop their sport teams and catch up with the above three countries. Similarly, it's the responsibility of all individual countries (plus international badminton authority) to promote badminton sport to their citizen, then the sport will be more popular eventually; furthermore, the commercial organisations will sponsor this sport with more prize money.... 4) A particular racket sport popular in one country is not necessarily to have the same popularity in another country because it depends on many factors such as sport venues, people's physical characteristics, climate, etc. We cannot expect that a racket sport such as badminton would be popular in all countries. We can only hope to get more people knowing and even loving about this sport. By disallowing any one country (wealthy or poor) to participate in an international tournament does not help to promote this sport at all. On the contrary, it would put badminton into disrepute. In short, there are many biased or prejudiced opinions around sometimes. We have to think more thoroughly before we agree what they say. The only benchmark (besides logical thinking) to judge their reasonableness is, I think, the sportsmanship such as equal opportunity of participation, fairness in competition, and enhancement of sport skills. Therefore the quoted 'article' is not much worth to read (and to translate); its idea is only a ridicule to most of us. The worst part of the article is to promote discrimination against the better badminton sport countries while in fact it does not help the less competitive badminton countries at all. Any kind of discrimination should be despised.
A glorious victory in the Thomas and Uber Cup by India, USA, Brazil, Russia, Nigeria etc. is not the responsibility of INA, MAS, and CHN. Obviously these countries have to fight for badminton glory! Look at KOR, ...40 years ago, they were a non-factor in international badminton. Now they are awesome! With no deliberate 'help' from INA-MAS-CHN. They stepped up and earned it, the way it should be! The continuous ambitions of INA-MAS-CHN to win the top prizes are natural. What's the point of putting so much effort in their country's badminton without the chance to earn glory for their country? Patriotism is now called selfishness? C'mon! It is not these 3 countries' job to not win! As for making badminton a worldwide sport, that is one of the main job of BWF. But they should not make badminton a worldwide sport by asking INA-MAS-CHN to share their glory around... That's insane! I believe Russia and India will be the most probable next world-class contender... As far as I know, they're doing things the right way, among others by: igniting more interest in badminton by having Russia Open GP Gold [...well ...GP this year] & White Nights International Challenge and India Open GP Gold & India International Challenge regularly...
