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Badminton's hour of shame...
It was a move meant to increase the popularity of badminton. Instead it has boomeranged to destroy its credibility at the biggest possible sporting arena. Badminton was introduced at the Olympics in 1992 and all five editions thereon had a simple elimination format. Sukhwant Basra reports. London blues
It was a move meant to increase the popularity of badminton. Instead it has boomeranged to destroy its credibility at the biggest possible sporting arena. Badminton was introduced at the Olympics in 1992 and all five editions thereon had a simple elimination format.
London 2012, however, saw the draws being divided into four quarters with the top two advancing to the next stage. With it pre-decided that the top placed of one group would clash with the second placed of another, players and teams had the opportunity to figure just who they would face in the quarterfinal if matches of the other group had already concluded. In the case of women's doubles, this became blatant as dominant teams, which had already booked their quarters berths, looked to lose.
At a teeming press conference the international badminton federation's secretary Thomas Lund looked to do some desperate firefighting in what was a losing battle. To the query as to why the format had to be changed from prior Games he offered the weak argument of "exposure" to more players and a chance for spectators to see more matches.
While the federation was quick in banning the four errant pairs from the Olympics, it chose not to pass any further strictures against them. They are free to compete in the very next event after the Olympics and that smacks of a weak-willed body in-charge. The federation made apologetic noises but did not offer any credible logic to just how it meant to curb the menace which has been long prevalent.
India angle
However, in what appears to be a blatant case of bias, India coach Pullela Gopi Chand's plea about a 'fixed' match that denied our pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa a shot at the quarters, did not find favour with the authorities. The duo was pushed to third in their group after Japan's world No. 5 pair of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa lost to Chinese Taipei's Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien in their final group contest.
But the world body rejected their protest. Interestingly enough, India had protested before the scandal came to light amidst spectator uproar and tremendous negative exposure in the media. The Japanese qualified as the second team in the group, edging out India by a solo point. India had 138 points for and 135 against - a difference of plus three. Japan had 130-126 (4).
"Just because it's subtle and the crowd did not make a noise, the TV didn't make a noise, doesn't mean it didn't happen," said Gopi. He went on to assert that it was only because the crowd created a racket and that the 'fixing' was so blatant that BWF "did anything". "The system is first at fault. The players will do whatever they can to win a medal and if losing means a better draw, they will do it."
The BWF charged the eight players with 'misconduct' and 'not using one's best efforts to win.'
