What a difference a month makes
Author: Jonathan Phillips
Date: 06 Sep 2004
Category: Comment
Taken with permission from the popular London based sports magazine, Sportscene.
What a difference a month makes in badminton. In the lead up to the
Athens 2004 most badminton aficionados were decrying the demise of the
British game at both grass-root and national level.
Although there are still many problems at both levels, a strong British
performance at the games has given a renewed hope and the all important
media coverage the game so desperately deserves.
Not only a silver medal for Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson but great
performances from other players such as Tracey Hallam have put
badminton on the national agenda once again. This was capped with
superb TV coverage from the BBC, albeit mostly for those with access to
digital interactive facilities.
It is now up to the badminton bodies injunction with the fans of the
sport to build on this and elevate badminton in the mind of the media.
The question is, will the BBC follow up it's successful badminton
broadcast with more of the same or will it be put on the back burner
for another 4 years. Sky TV do a commendable job covering the All
England Open Tournament each year but badminton appearances on TV are
few and far between.
A great indication of the Olympic success is reflected in message
boards on the internet. The big surprise here is that the majority of
posters on these forums are non-badminton players. Previously the
profile of a badminton spectator was made up of players and their
families...now it looks like a few armchair spectators are hooked.
Another indicator is a petition currently hosted on Badders.com that is
lobbying media agencies for more badminton coverage. Since the Olympic
coverage the number of signatures has increased by 41%.
As far as personal achievement, Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson have
been the winners. Darlings of the court in both ability and image, they
did Great Britain proud. In the 48 hours following their Olympic final
Badders.com received over 2,700 visitors - arriving through a search
for 'Gail Emms' via Google. Most of them looking for pictures.
The silver medal for Gail and Nathan wasn't unexpected as they have
recently been ranked as world number 1's in mixed doubles. The surprise
as ever with British athletes is the ability to covert an opportunity
into a medal on the big stage. Maybe the biggest shock was that the
medal was oh so nearly gold.
Although Gail and Nathan have been top players in England for a while,
they are still not household names. With silver medal in tow it looks
like British badminton have two personalities to base their propaganda
around. Ambassadors that could take the game beyond the playing
population into the living room.
The major obstacle in realising this is the stereotype the game
conjures up. Church halls, picnics, playing in the garden. The lack of
success in Britain is also a contributory factor as the Asian nations
take the lions share of tournament wins. This is understandable as
countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia have badminton as their
national sport and China have 75% of the world's badminton playing
population.
The only anomaly with the Far Eastern dominance is Denmark. A very
successful badminton nation with top players at all disciplines. The
Danish club and league structure seems to be key in their
accomplishment's with many other nations studying how they have
achieved so much with such a small core set of players.
So how can badminton in Britain start to chip away at the dominance of other nations?
In England a great deal of lottery money has been provided to build an
infrastructure and environment conjusive to producing world class
badminton players. The Badminton Association of England have a
wonderful purpose built sport facility on Milton Keynes with state of
the art equipment. This of course helps but there are a few other
stumbling blocks.
One of these is the lack of passion, belonging and tribalism that you
get with sports like football - certainly outside of the Far East.
Media coverage is usually increased and interest inflated when people
support teams rather than individuals. Football fans support teams
rather than players - individuals come and go but they maintain support
of their team.
A significant way to increase the viewing figures in badminton would be
to create team matches and persona's around the clubs/teams
rather than the individuals. Obviously, there are massive followings in
football for players (Beckham/Owen/Zidane et al) but team loyalty is
not questioned when they leave to play for another club.
Certainly in the UK the county structure does nothing to encourage
passionate and fanatical following of badminton events. The only
solution would be to form a league structure around towns and drag in a
different type of support. Rather than the badminton fans solely
focusing on the technical aspect of the game - there would be a rivalry
that went beyond the game and continued off court.
For the UK/GB, the Athens Olympics was the first time we had seen the
'barmy army' effect and a passionate crowd that roared and shouted
rather than clapped politely. If we could follow this up with a town
vs. town competition we could see badminton viewing take off.
For all of those inspired by the British venture at the Olympics then
they can get more information from the Badminton Association of England
Site - www.baofe.co.uk
Jonathan Phillips
Badders.com
Profile
Badders.com (www.badders.com) is the first truly interactive website
dedicated solely to the badminton community. It is a community for
enthusiasts working collaboratively to create a friendly site for
badminton players and supporters on the internet.
The site was founded by Jonathan Phillips in 2001 and the people who
run the site are all volunteers. The community offers all clubs,
individuals, schools, universities, coaches, umpires and any other
teams & associations, the ability to communicate and interact with
each other.
