Despite their dominance in badminton, Chinese players are not very popular

Despite the dominance China enjoys in badminton, their players are not the most popular on the circuit. This is due to several reasons, such as the team’s apparent indifference to media, the audience’s habit of backing underdogs, and political undercurrents. It is something of a tragedy that the Chinese haven’t been able to leverage their stunning successes over decades to build a worldwide following for their players, many of whom are legends in their own right.

Consequently, crowds at various venues have a habit of ‘adopting’ foreign players who challenge the Chinese. Saina Nehwal is extremely popular in Indonesia because of her consistently brilliant performances there, and the Indonesians have no women’s singles player of similar quality. At the World Superseries Finals, the Kuala Lumpur crowd adopted Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying, a cheerful teen who overturned the form book by upsetting world No.2 Wang Shixian in the semi-finals after recovering from three match points down.

Badminton had gained unwelcome attention during the London Olympics due to the ‘match throwing’ controversy involving top Chinese, Korean and Indonesian women’s doubles teams, prompting the world federation to consider fool proof group formats.

Incidents of under performance are not without precedent, and badminton is particularly vulnerable because the sport is structured around national identity rather than individual identity. Since players primarily represent their countries rather than themselves at all tournaments, they are subject to team instructions.

The problem is higher among Asians rather than Europeans because Asian players are products of their national programmes while most Europeans are accustomed to a more individual style, and are not obliged to toe the team line.

The world federation has taken several steps to address the problem of under performance. At the BWF World Superseries Finals, the semifinals were decided through a random draw, to prevent group toppers from knowing who they would play in the elimination round. The system was tried out late on Friday, and some members of the media were invited to pick the chits.

Perhaps the most famous Danish player in India is Morten Frost, PrakashPadukone’s great contemporary. On a visit to Bangalore in 2006, Frost had warned trainees of the Padukone Academy to look out for a young player named Jan O Jorgensen. “You better watch out,” Frost had said. “He’s going to beat all of you.” Seven years later, Jorgensen finds himself in the top-five world rankings.

Although he’s not quite the world-beater that Frost had promised, he has been clawing his way up. The Dane entered the World Superseries Finals tournament on the back of some impressive performances, including a title victory at the French Open in October. “It’s not about Frost or anyone else,” Jorgensen said. “I have to live up to my own high expectations. This year has been good for me. I’m in top five and want to keep the momentum going.”