Putting the absence of CHN team aside.... Kaori Imabeppu is a least known player that I really want to watch. I only managed to see her play once last year (cant remember which tournament). It's nice to put the faces to their names, and see them play as I never get to watch some of them on televised matches (online viewing is slow and hopeless for me) so hope they survived the rounds til' I get to see them on tv.
When sport are politics mix, it never ends well! A disgraceful decision by Chinese Badminton to withdraw from the tournament! Disgraceful decision by China to pressure their players into making a political statement! Feel sorry for the players and the people of China who have to put up with this crap! Besides that, fantastic to have a tournament that we wont see a Chinese clean sweep! Actually going to pay attention now that we will see some different winners for once! And we wont get let down by a tank in the semi-finals!
Thus why I stated "Disgraceful decision by China to pressure their players into making a political statement!"
ignorance knows no bound, that's all i can say. With the current situation between the Chinese and the jap , even you put gun onto their heads they will still refuse to go and play badminton there.
Precisely so! What disgraceful decision? Advisable to know some history and get the facts right before jumping to any conclusion. As far as possible, I 'd like to see politics and sports separate but in reality it's not always possible; not when sovereignty is at stake and the offensive party recalcitrant. Besides, the players and coaches' safety is a concern should the situation spirals out of control. Let's hope the tension is defused quickly and things return to 'normalcy' once again by diplomacy which has always been China's policy instead of provocations and sabre rattling by .... Politics sometimes rears its ugly head even in sports but it isn't necessarily all bad. Boycott of the Olympic Games is a negative example while Ping Pong Diplomacy is positive. That's for international relations but even domestically when big money and political agenda get onto it, the players, particularly the famous ones, are willy-nilly drawn into it often without their realization.
What a damning and sweeping statement, totally unjustified. On the contrary, without CHN it will lose much of the respect and honour. Without them where will badminton be today? Please see the big picture and cast aside your narrow-mindedness, prejudice and keep personal your desire to see non-CHN players win a few major titles. A fair and balanced view is proper,healthy and good. 'BWF some relief', not worried? If CHN were to pull out from a few more BWF-sanctioned tournaments, even the big-time sponsors will begin to panic. I believe the CHN contingent's withdrawal wasn't what they wanted if they can help it. As it is, I read that they will have to pay a fine for the last-minute withdrawal in addition to a few of their players losing valuable ranking points, notably the defending champions MS Chen Long and WD Bao-Zhong. That said,the ROW should be thankful and make full use of this rare opportunity to fight for a SS title, with the exception of Lee CW who is certainly qualified to win on his own in the absence of Lin Dan. And don't be so petty as to use the number of posts to gauge the supposed lack of interest or popularity of the CHN Masters or any tournament for that matter. In China, any of their badminton forums is more than enough to drown us here in this forum.
Alas, we have a taintless tournament. No walkovers and special instructions to lose. Badminton is certainly much better and cleaner now and exciting too. But for how long? One wonders.
