June 17, 2007
Although Dick Sudirman, founder of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), has died for years, he still could not rest in peace as our shuttlers once again failed to win back the Sudirman Cup, a trophy under his name for the winner of the world mixed team badminton championship.
In the latest Sudirman Cup in Glasgow, we bowed out 0-3 to China in the final, which means that we have been in the finals seven times since the tournament began in 1989 but just won it once in 1989.
This defeat adds misery to our badminton record as our men’s team has not won Thomas Cup since 2004, while the women’s team won the Uber Cup for the last time nine years ago. Only few individual shuttlers could strongly compete at the world’s level.
The reason behind the defeat in Glasgow is quite clear but cliché because our squad is weaker than the Chinese team, a problem that has been plaguing the country’s badminton in the past ten years.
We only rely on few senior shuttlers such as men’s singles Taufik Hidayat, mixed doubles pair of Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, and men’s doubles pair of Markis Kidho and Hendra Setiawan. Others don’t play convincingly and we don’t even have
good women’s shuttlers after wonder girl Susi Susanti quit in late 1990s and Mia Audina moved to the Netherlands.
This is really among the lowest point in our badminton history.
But what is the real problem? Do we just lose talents after building badminton for so long as the greatest sport at home?
Historically, we never stopped producing great players such as Rudy Hartono in 1960s to 1970s, Icuk Sugiarto in 1980s, Ivana Lie in 1980s, Alan Budikusuma 1990s, Susi Susanti in 1990s and many more. They and other players were the backbones to win Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, and Sudirman Cup in the past.
At present, talents also still scatter across the country and teenager shuttlers in the national badminton training camp are waiting for chances to excel.
But the PBSI seemingly lacks vision and focus to rebuild badminton at home as it did not make any significant actions despite ongoing failures.
No changes have been made although the current coaches and training programs are no longer good enough to create great shuttlers. If the current coaches do not succeed with their programs, why do we keep them? We are going to waste time and money without result as we have done over the last decade.
Our current badminton situation reminds us to what happened to Germany and Brazil in soccer. Germany was three-time Soccer World Cup champion in the 20th century, but it failed to shine since early 2000. Brazil soccer also experienced a low period in the 1980s.
But they could bounce back thanks to the great vision of their soccer organization to improve their soccer team by recruiting new coaches with fresh and very good program. The results were obvious.
Brazil dominated world soccer in the past 16 years by winning the World Cup twice, while Germany regained its confidence as a soccer powerhouse as their youngsters played attractive soccer to win third place in the 2006 World Cup.
We realize that ups and downs are common in sport, but when we are on the way down, we should respond quickly to go back to the top before it is too late and we never recover.
Therefore, in the lowest point of our badminton history, it is crucial now to focus on efforts to rebuild badminton by bringing in the best coaches and fresh programs to train our players to be terrific shuttlers.
We have players and former players who are very successful overseas such as Rexy Mainaky, who raised Malaysian men’s doubles back to the top level, and veteran Tony Gunawan, who won world championship as a U.S. player. We also have Susi Susanti, Ivana Lie, Verawati Fajrin, Alan Budikusuma, Ardy B. Wiranata, and Heryanto Arbi at home. The PBSI should make serious approach to them and convince them that they are badly needed to rebuild our badminton squad.
If we really want to rebuild our badminton team and make Sudirman rest in peace for good, it is the right time to do so.
(neo)
