rambleville

Ok, it’s not a podcast – it’s an NPR radio show.  But I get it weekly via the RSS feed. Anyway, I just wanted to say it’s my guaranteed laugh-a-minute podcast at the moment, and I’m loving it.

Go google it up.

I understand what he’s saying. He’s got a point to put across.  So why did I feel the way Tucker Carlson did it was so blatantly evocative of a simple ‘revenge’ act out towards another who humiliated him?

Summary: Years ago during the 2004 campaign trail, Jon Stewart appeared in CNN’s Crossfire where Carlson was a co-host, and basically told off Carlson that Crossfire was not doing enough to ‘hold politician’s feet to the fire’ and ‘hurting America’.  The clip of Stewart’s attack became an Internet sensation.  Two weeks ago, Stewart had Jim Cramer, a CNBC financial pundit, on the Daily Show and proceeded to rip Cramer up for what Stewart considered to be Cramer’s ‘responsibility’ to the American people to expose the warning signs within the financial industry that is the precursor to today’s financial meltdown. Carlson appeared in CNN after the Cramer-Stewart interview and, uhm, ranted.

Here’s a link to The Huffington Post where Carlson rips into Jon Stewart on CNN’s Reliable Sources.

And here are the clips of Jim Cramer’s interview in the Daily Show which prompted the tirade by Carlson.

Now this is what I call reality TV. 

See for yourselves.

Sure, this is old news already, but hey, it’s still appearing in Reuters’s list of most popular articles.

Chuck Norris has sued Penguin, the publisher of the book "The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World's Greatest Human", which lists previously unknown gems such as:

• A cobra once bit Chuck Norris’s leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
• Chuck Norris can charge a cell phone by rubbing it against his beard.
• When an episode of “Walker, Texas Ranger” aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side.
• Chuck Norris was the first person to tame a dinosaur.
• Chuck Norris once visited The Virgin Islands. Afterward, they were renamed The Islands.
• Every piece of furniture in Chuck Norris’s house is a Total Gym.

Obviously, these are all fake truths made in the name of fun.  I think Norris was widely denounced as a complete dunderhead when he sued, saying he was as funny as wet burlap, and that may be true.  However, it is stated that he believed Penguin and the author of the book of “misappropriated and exploited Mr. Norris's name and likeness without authorization for their own commercial profit.”

This case reminds me of JK Rowling suing to prevent the publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon.

I’m not saying he should be suing, I’m just saying he may be all fun and smiles while the Chuck Facts is free to float around in the Internet without commercial implications, but he kicks ass when someone compiles all these things and sells it as a book, possibly even without compensation to the original writers of these gems (I don’t know) or to Chuck himself.

There's nothing more interesting to the audience of a sport to hear a smart-alec commentator who acts as though he knows everything be proven wrong.  Well, at least it's interesting to me.  I mean, take a look at the football pundits.  They didn't take Joe Fanboy off the streets, oh no, they actually have qualified experts who've actually kicked a ball in front of live spectators who paid to watch them play the game.  That's great.  Instant credibility right there.  But that doesn't stop them from being wrong, and sometimes, horrendously wrong.

I always grin at the guy who goes, "There's no doubt about it, there's too much quality in the [insert footie club] side", or "I can't see them losing this", and when the match is lost, they go, "No one could have expected this, [insert the above footie club] played well below par, etc, etc".

Nothing wrong with experts making mistakes, of course.  I'm just saying it's entertaining to have them get their faces rubbed in.

So here comes my point (yeah, I belaboured it, so bite me) - if you like this, and if I were a sports commentator, you'd be having some fun at my expense.  I have written off Lee Chong Wei after his not-again loss to Lin Dan at the All-England.  As usual, supporting Chong Wei was an exhausting affair - you kept holding your breath hoping he'd whack Lin Dan, waving your arms and all that only to find that you've been doing it the whole match and you get tired. 

So I watched the Swiss Open final warily.  If there's such a thing as watching a badminton match nonchalantly, I was doing it. And if I was the sports commentator, I would be reiterating the fact that Lin Dan has won the last [insert number] encounters between the two.

But Chong Wei won.  He played the game I was screaming at him to play from my living room during the All-England final last week. 

If I was a sports commentator, I'd be saying, "Lin Dan played well below par, etc, etc."

Maybe I should be a sports commentator.  Hey, ESPN, want someone to relieve Gillian Clark?

This is absolutely ridiculous.  Ben Foster, the Manchester United goalkeeper used an iPod in training to learn up penalty-taking habits of Tottenham Hotspurs players leading up the the League Cup final last Sunday.  This apparently “had the potential to exploit a loophole in the laws which should be referred to FIFA", according to former Premier League referee Graham Poll.

It was such a game changer in fact that the English FA has had to come up to dispel any notions of wrong-doing in a statement, according to fourfourtwo.com.

It’s amazing to me that this should even be brought up at all.  Should anything and everything related to technology used in conjunction with football training be scrutinized as well?

The new version of Wordpress (version 2.7) has an auto-upgrade feature that allows automatic updating of your Wordpress if there is a newer version (in my case, it was 2.7.1).  A quick Tools –> Upgrade –> Automatic Upgrade and voila!  It didn’t even take a minute.

This are the little things that make Wordpress so usable and effortless.   Wins many, many points with this this usability freak.

There is always a danger when you start to believe your immortality. Granted, Roger Federer has more cause to believe in his own hype that most, seeing that he is indeed one of the more dominant figures in his sport. However, there comes a time when you have been completely and utterly beaten that maybe it's better to be gracious about it and let the worthy winner bask in the sunlight for a bit.

Modesty has never been Federer's forte. Some would say he can pretty much say whatever he wants, and I totally agree. The man is entitled to his opinions. But perhaps he should start looking at the stats and concentrate on bettering his winning ratio against Rafael Nadal than to keep offering up excuses for his defeats.

After a while it becomes tedious to hear him complain about his shortcomings rather than to praise his conqueror. Like in the case of the Aussie Open mens singles final 2009, where he said things like, "In a fifth set, anything can happen. That's the problem. Not usually the better player always wins. Just a matter of momentum sometimes" just comes across like the musings of a sore loser. And what about the disbelieve when Federer found out that Andy Murray has been installed as the favourite at the start of the Aussie Open?

"He's playing well and finished well last year. But I'm surprised that the bookies say he's the favourite. He's never won a slam, it's surprising to hear."

"He's playing with good confidence. But winning a slam is a different animal, not many guys have been able to do it."

Murray, of course, beat Federer in their last three encounters, including twice in January alone.

Nadal and Federer have great finals, and both times now Nadal has denied Federer his chance of making his mark in history. This is no fluke - against all odds, Nadal pushed arguably the best player of his generation to another gruelling 5 set epic in a Grand Slam final, and most importantly, winning it. Nadal is only 22, already has 6 Grand Slams and has nowhere to go but up. At that age, Federer only had 2 Grand Slams titles. I won't be surprised if Rafael Nadal, one of the most gracious, humble and grounded top athletes I have seen, overtakes Federer's achievements.

I much prefer Federer's game to Nadal's - it's more varied, nuanced, and is simply entertaining in a way that Sampras's game never was, and much better than Nadal's constant power play. But Nadal has the better temperament - he shows a maturity that goes way beyond his years. I wish I would be that matured and gracious at 22 (I know I wasn't, since I can't play tennis. Aaaanyway...).

Roger, maybe graciously accepting defeat, giving Rafa his due and generally letting Rafa his time in the sun is in the long run a better thing for you than to always point out that the other won because you didn't play your best. This has the effect of having the media pour their attention to him, moving the pressure off your back, allowing you to improve away from the harsh spotlight that's constant and distracting. This is a good thing, and it's something you may need to get things back on track.

Face it, your time at the pinnacle of tennis has past. It's now up to you to claw your way back, without looking like a prune doing it.

I find it utterly unacceptable that none of our 2 major online news channels updated Lee Chong Wei’s win in the Malaysian Open 2008.  We’re talking about a local boy who happens to be World No 1, playing in one of the top international Open tournaments in the world of Badminton, which also happens to be in our freaking backyard!

I understand that TheStar and NST doesn’t have a 24/7 news-cycle, but it’s it about time we did?

The only one that I’m aware of that had this news was Bernama.

When I did a Google search, Bernama wasn’t on the top 10 list.  I had to find out from Channel News Asia, the 24-hour news network from our most beloved of neighbours, Singapore, who had their representatives sent home a long time ago, probably by our players too (I’m out of the country, which is why I had to rely on the net for news).

Google regularly places TheStar as one of the go-to places for badminton news.  I don’t know why, but it regularly appears in Google News.  I would hazard and say that thestar,com.my is far and away the top Malaysian news portal in the world for all things Malaysian.  Why doesn’t it have a 24-hour news cycle, at least for Malaysian-related news?

A search will yield BadmintonCentral forums, rather than a news site.  I don’t have a problem with BadmintonCentral, but I want news immediately, rather than to wade through posts to find what I want.  There’s a time for news articles, and there’s a time for feedback on news.  This is not the time for the latter where I was concerned.

Isn’t it about time that our newspapers start being a little more, how shall I put it, 21st century?  At the very least when our athletes are concerned or for high-profile tournaments held in Malaysia, or (in this case) both, it may project a better image of our ability to provide *our* news at a timely basis if we did something about it.

If you're just joining in, I've written a short series of posts related to my top badminton players of all-time, an entirely personal list of who I think rule the roost in the world of badminton.

If you want to get up to speed, the other posts are as follows:

• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Prelude
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 1
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 2
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 3

In writing this series of posts I thought of a few things.

First is the evolution in sports and how it distorts any reasonable attempts at deciding who's the 'best'.  Not just in badminton, but in almost any sport you care to name.  I don't know about you, but whenever I watch athletes today I wonder constantly how the the greats of yesteryears compare to the greats of today.  As time passes, so many things have changed.  The training methods and tools have improved, the diet that top athletes are being put through now is much more carefully planned, replete with supplements the best technology can produce.  Also on technology, the gear that the athletes have available for them now are far and away much better than before.  The Speedo LZR Racer, for instance, is an example - where of the 77 world records broken to date since its introduction in Feb 2008, 72 of them were by swimmers wearing the hi-tech swimsuit.

Consider how these changes affect sports: for football, the technique in controlling a modern ball is surely different than the old one.  Would Pele be able to compete in today's game?  Consider Navratilova or Evert with someone like Venus or Serena Williams - how could their games compare?  Remember Navratilova has more titles that both of them combined, but I would think that Navratilova's game in her prime could not match the powerplay of either of the Williams sisters.  Would you still pick Navratilova?  People have pondered how Tiger would have performed with Nicklaus or Palmer in their prime.  Who is ultimately the better tennis player, Federer, or Sampras? 

The point is, there really isn't a satisfactory answer.

When I started compiling this list, I kept thinking about the most quantifiable way to justify my list.  Questions similar to the ones I illustrated above come up again and again.  Turns out that there really isn't a foolproof way of doing it, and the list remains subjective, emotional and cannot be proved by empirical evidence (pretty much what I said in the prologue).

Having said that, I believe the standards for the sport are being pushed higher and higher as we go along.  The shuttlers train harder, run further, play stronger, jump higher.  It is this believe I think that so many of the modern players dominate my list.

So anyway, I wanted to use this 'epilogue', of sorts, to acknowledge some of the players that I left out, some who will elicit screams of rage from badminton fans at large.

1. Morten Frost Hansen

For me, it was a toss-up between Yang Yang and Frost.  Frost had a longer and more decorated career, and was certainly not a pushover as a top singles badminton player.  He won practically everything there is to win during his playing days, with the notable exception of the World Championships.  To top it off, he is a brilliant coach, and did wonders for the teams he tenured with (the same could be said of Yang Yang as well, now that I think of it).

If I were blessed with a better memory, I would remember more of Frost's battles, but as it is, it's more Yang Yang than Frost, and to top it off, when he did win a match I remembered, it was against Misbun during the All-England final, breaking my young heart and irrevocably screwed my mental image of him as a bad, bad man.

2. Rudy Hartono

I suppose the only reason he's not in my list is because I've never seen him play.  He dominated All-England for 8 years, and is considered pretty much The Man in Indonesia.  He was also successful in men's doubles, which something that you don't see nowadays at all.

He's in this list because in the course of my research his record pretty much awed me.

3. Zhao Jianhua

Yang Yang is starting to look like a strange choice, doesn't it?  Not only has he edged out Frost, he was also chosen ahead of this gentlemen.  Zhao Jianhua, for all who remembered him, is widely (and I mean widely) regarded to be the best player of all time.  Even now.  His claim to fame: incredibly tricky player with an arsenal of skills.  He's fast, deceptive and deadly.  Unfortunately, he is equally as well known for his inconsistency.  This mercurial player is more unpredictable than Dennis Rodman's hairstyles - you'll never know when he's going to lose.  My most vivid memory of him was his match against Rashid Sidek in 1992 as first singles in the Thomas Cup semi-finals, which Zhao lost.  I remember a dodgy line call that settled the first set for the Malaysian (Zhao was very unhappy with the call), but despite Rashid playing a superbly boring game to neutralize Zhao's attacking, Zhao couldn't get his act together to win. 

(Actually, perhaps I should say Rashid won in spite of playing a superbly boring game.)

Taufik was also tagged as being inconsistent.  But Zhao Jianhua in my mind seemed even more so. 

4. Ge Fei/Gu Jun

Women's doubles pair.  China.  Unbeatable.  Dynamic duo.  Won practically every match I've seen them play.  Could be me, but sometimes I see the boredom in both their eyes when playing in finals of international tournaments. "Sigh, Ge Fei, how I wish they'd just give us the medal now."  "Sigh, look at her, Gu Jun, her hair is in a mess after that body smash I just did."  "Sigh, I wonder what's on TV now?"

And it's so creepy (and weirdly funny) watching Ge Fei, who hardly needs to catch her breath throughout matches.  You'll never see her huffing and puffing like Bao Chunlai (who looks like he's run a marathon after just 3 points).  She's as cool as they come.  "Oh, another point.  Yawn..."

I was most impressed with Ge Fei at the time, as she was the one who could partner a guy in mixed doubles and win loads of trophies too.  She was pretty much installed as my most impressive female player until Gao Ling came along.  But even then, I don't think even Gao Ling had the unmistakable air of invincibility that Ge Fei and Gu Jun had during those days.

Before I close out this series I want to mention that we're living very enabled times.  The internet has transformed our daily lives, and will continue to encompass more and more aspects of our lives.  This holds true to the true blue badminton fan as well.  If you've ever missed a match you wanted to see, or, more importantly, you want to watch an evergreen player whom you've never seen before to see how they used to play the game, the internet is a fantastic resource.  The BadmintonCentral forum holds more badminton freaks in one place than anywhere I know, and Youtube has a great selection of clips of great players.  Badmintontorrents can point you the way to even more downloads of matches.

Agree or disagree with either my train of thoughts, or my choice of players?  Let me know in the comments!

See also:

• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Prelude
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 1
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 2
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 3
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Epilogue
  

This is a continuation of my previous posts on my Top 10 badminton players of all-time.  My previous posts include the Prelude, Part 1 and Part 2.

To continue:

4. Tony Gunawan

A true doubles specialist, and someone I consider to be pretty much the best doubles player ever.  Yes, I think he's better than Park Joo Bong, or Li Yongbo, or Kim Dong-moon, or whoever else you care to name.

He has won countless top tier competitions with a variety of partners in both men's and mixed doubles.  There are players who are just lucky to win titles after just one partner change, but fellow is so gamely he doesn't seem to mind who he wins titles with.  A testament, of course, to his playing abilities.

Gunawan is my poster boy for thinking doubles play.  His modus operandi seems to be to bewilder opponents.  Supremely experienced and seemingly impervious to pressure, if he weren't starting to age he's still be at the top of the world rankings.

And I say this with all due respect to Howard Bach: anyone who can win the World Championships partnering a player not among the world's elite deserves much adulation, praise and monetary rewards, and of course, a mention in my list.  I saw the World Championship men's doubles finals 2005, and remember being increasingly incredulous as Gunawan (then playing for the US) masterfully controlled the court while crafting opportunities for his partner Bach to use his only available weapon - his smash.  And this against his current partner Chandra Wijaya, at that time partnering Sigit Budiarto.  Wijaya and Budiarto are no chopped liver, I can assure you.  Gunawan/Bach's win gave the United States (the United States!) their first ever World Championship gold.  Even Malaysia hasn't got one of those, and Malaysia is a country where people on the street actually know what badminton is! 

(My dearest American friends, I apologize if this seems flippant.  Imagine if you will the Olympics Gold for men's basketball was won by Malaysia.  You'd be amazed and appreciative, but still incredulous.  And the fact remains that 99% of the American population does not know they have a Badminton World Championship gold medal.  I asked.)

I really liked that he and his best friend Chandra Wijaya have reunited a couple of years ago to tour the circuit entirely on their own (with sponsorship, I understand) to play, completely without pressure and to enjoy the game. 

3. Gao Ling

My favourite player to watch, bar none.  Gao Ling's the most jovial personality I've ever seen in my years of watching badminton matches.  She is very good-natured, and always has a self-deprecating smile for a missed shot or a good play. 

I really like watching her play.  Every other player on the court puts on a poker face, like going through the motions in another day at the office (Taufik Hidayat comes to mind.  He doesn't even seem to need to catch his breath).  Gao Ling is refreshingly different, she wears her feelings on her sleeve, and as I've mentioned in a very old post of mine, she soothes my soul, and makes badminton so much fun.

After Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the wuxia novels of Jin Yong, Gao Ling is the third most painful reminder of regret that I can't read Chinese.  Apparently the juiciest badminton gossips can be gleaned from Chinese tabloids, and while Google Translate enables me to read some of the stories, it takes an incredible amount of effort to understand the translation (and to avoid laughing too much).  I learned that she went out for a time with Chen Hong (I don't know why, he's always so sour-looking, such an antithesis to her very nature), another top Chinese men's singles shuttler, and when they broke off, there was a big commotion in the news.  I remember feeling sad, and hoped that this nice girl finds someone equally nice.

No, I'm not insane.  This is probably the closest I've got to idol worship. 

Oh, did I mention that she was also a winner?  I'm sorry, I just got carried away praising her demeanour that I forgot to mention that she is a brilliant doubles specialist in the mold of the formidable Ge Fei - able to play at the highest level in mixed and women's doubles.  She is fast, tenacious and has great anticipation.

Considered one of the best woman doubles player of all time, she has stood on the winners podium at the All-England for the last 8 years, either as women's doubles or mixed doubles champion, and sometimes both.  She was an Olympics gold medal winner in 2000 and 2004 in mixed doubles, 4 time World Championship winner and countless other titles.

See?  Nice fun-loving people don't always finish last.

As a bonus, check out one of the longest badminton rallies I've seen, featuring (who else?) Gao Ling.

2. Taufik Hidayat

The world's most innately talented badminton player.  On pure talent alone, I think this chap beats all.  A precocious teenager when he burst onto the scene, he is noted for this cool and calm demeanour, and a mastery of the game that is well beyond his years. 

I think his reputation has a gifted talent comes from his shot-making ability.  He is not known for his ability to retrieve shots, or his attacking ability (although he has that also).  I think it is his ability to improvise, to create a shot out of nothing, to attack when it seems like he is on the ropes.  Of course, the prime example of this is his world-famous backhand smash.

He is always dangerous.  He is the one player that the Chinese are looking out for.  He is the one that has the Malaysian players shake their heads when they find that he is in their draw.  Even now, when he is supposedly past his prime, he is still winning Super Series tournaments.  People tend to forget that he is only 28 this year, because he has been on the tour so long.

Before Lin Dan came along, he was the bad boy of badminton.  He went head-on against the Indonesian Badminton Federation when they changed his coach, and gave a walkover to Lin Dan in a semifinal match over a disputed line call (that match was less than 10 minutes old when he walked out).

But whatever tantrums he threw, he will still be remembered in my mind as the maestro.

He may not be my top badminton pick, but he is definitely my favourite player of all time.  I know I'm all the more fortunate in my life to have loved badminton, and to have watched Taufik Hidayat play.

1. Lin Dan

It's possible to quantify a player's success in sports.  No matter how passionately you believe a player to be good, you cannot argue with the record.  It's like how some are adamant that Michael Chang was one of the best and brightest young talents ever to emerge for tennis, but where are his trophies?  It's irrelevant just how gifted a player is if he doesn't have anything to show for it.

No matter what your feelings are for Lin Dan, there are a couple of things that cannot be denied:

1. World No 1 from 2004 for an almost consecutive period of 4 years.  Not an easy feat in the modern game (Chong Wei was very briefly No 1 in 2006 - something like 5 minutes, I think).  I can't think of anyone who dominated the sport so thoroughly since Rudy Hartono.
2. Including singles and team events, he won 6 titles in 2004, 4 titles in 2005, 8 titles in 2006, 7 titles in 2007 and 4 titles in 2008 (even though he was resting for almost 4 months after his Olympics gold!).  And that's not including the times he came second.  Oh, and by titles, I mean Super Series and Grand Prix titles, not domestic or satellite tournament titles, ok?

Who cares if he had a bust-up with his coach, or that he was a sore loser during the awards ceremony after losing the 2006 Malaysian Open final?  So what if Taufik pronounced him as 'arrogant'?  Lin Dan is virtually unbeatable, and have been for the longest time.  At 26, he still has at least 2 years of top flight badminton in him (Han Jian was still winning titles at 29, Gade at 32).

His domination of the game seems so effortless and total.  After winning the Beijing Olympics gold, he was not playing (I'm tempted to say enjoying his win) for almost 4 months before coming back to the Super Series tour playing in the China Open, and promptly won it.

Apparently he's good looking too, enough to attract the leggy beauty Xie Xingfang, a former World No 1 Chinese female singles shuttler, and countless screaming, hysterical fans.

I can't help but draw some parallels between Lin Dan's achievements with those of Roger Federer's and Tiger Wood's, but bearing in mind that badminton is more physically intensive than tennis (I don't think I want to compare the physical intensity between badminton and golf.  If you have any doubts, please buy a TV).

The fact that Chong Wei dispatched Peter Gade with such authority in the BWF Super Series Masters Finals in Sabah in Dec 2008 seemed to underline the fact: No matter how devastating Chong Wei may seem, the world knows there's still one other who is even better.

My top badminton player pick is a champion of champions.

p.s. I must say though, that his nickname, 'Super Dan', has got to be one of the stupidest nicknames for a top athlete I have ever had the misfortune of hearing.  I mean, come on!  I'm sure it translates well in Chinese, but in English it sounds like a washing detergent.

That's it!  This is my Top 10 badminton players of all-time.  There's still an Epilogue to this series, where I pick the ones that almost made it to the list.  That's coming tomorrow.

See also:

• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Prelude
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 1
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 2
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 3
  
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Epilogue

This is a continuation of my previous posts on my Top 10 badminton players of all-time.  My previous posts include the Prelude, and Part 1.

To continue:

7. Zhang Ning

China has produced a lot of top women shuttlers, and while Gong Zhichao is pretty damn impressive (I once read an interview where Gong Zhichao described her training - believe you me, I got tired just reading it), it is Zhang Ning that I ended up choosing in my list.  To me, she exemplifies single-minded determination.  "The Miracle" (a moniker given to her by coach Li Yongbo) won her first title at 28, an age that is closer to retirement for than it is for starting on a journey of world dominance.  But start it she did.  A year later she captured the biggest prize in all badminton - the Athens 2004 women's singles gold. 

The quest to capture the Athens gold reads like a really sweet kungfu revenge epic.  The woman she beat in the Athens final was Mia Audina, to whom she lost 10 years before, costing China the Uber Cup.  At the back of my mind I imagine the broken-hearted Zhang Ning running miles of steps up to a badminton training monastery with buckets of water on her back as penance after the loss, vowing to train harder and to come up tops next time both of them crossed swords.

Talk about getting the monkey off your back. 

Zhang Ning's fantastic play and successful defense of her Olympics Women's singles gold in Beijing 2008 at 33 years of age (setting the record yet again for the oldest women's singles gold medal winner) was one of badminton's most magical moments of all-time.  Pure inspiration.

6. Peter Høeg Gade

The great Danish powerhouse, Peter Gade has seemingly played forever.  He is a legend not just in Europe (he won the Copenhagen Masters in his home soil for a staggering 9 times - his ninth was bagged just 4 days ago at the time of writing), but in the world as well, having won international titles since 1994 when he was just 18.  A fantastic talent, he is a very clever and deceptive player.  At 33, he is still World Number 5, which is a testament to his staying power.  Will he be mentioned in the same breath as the great Morten Frost?  Yes.

His playing style is a mixture of offensive play with guileful courtcraft.  Players need to be on their toes with this chap as he can run opponents ragged.  As he gets older his play is more focused on tactics than pure powerplay, but no less interesting to watch.

Not only is Gade a great player, he is a very friendly and gracious fellow, one of the more popular players on the circuit.  This comes through when the media interviews him after the match.

(Which, by the way, is very perplexing to me - players are shepherded to a mic and an interviewer immediately after winning a match, and they are still dripping with sweat, catching their breaths.  Can't they wait?  Sorry, I digress.)

World badminton is ruled by Asian players nowadays, and the tremendous focus it receives in the East is something the European players are not familiar with in their homelands, as badminton is not in the top echelon of their favourite sports.  Which is a shame, as players like Gade constantly demonstrate - they have fantastic players who dazzle in the world stage.

And Gade has dazzled more than most.  

5. Susi Susanti

My all-time favourite woman singles shuttler.  My dad and I used to call her 'Rubber Band', as she bounces around the court.  Her court coverage was pretty amazing. 

I remember her as an all-conquering badminton femme fatale, who very seldom lost the matches I actually watch her play.  Her closest rival when I was watching her was Ye Zhaoying, and although Zhaoying was pretty mighty herself, it seemed to me Susi always had the upper hand.

Susi has an idiocyncratic tendency -  she tended to do these front splits when she failed to retrieve an out-of-reach shot.  Every time that happened I felt like clapping my hands. (Before you ask, no, the splits are not the reason she's in this list.)

I have another vivid memory of her announcing her engagement to Alan Budi Kusuma shortly after winning the first ever Olympics badminton women's singles gold medal.  I remember thinking that while Alan was good, he was not nearly one of the best, and he wasn't even the best in the Indonesian team at the time.  But strangely he managed to win his men's singles gold, and I suppose that made them a good pair.  Shrug.

Strange things surface to the fore when you're digging your memories.

The last 4 in the Top 10 coming up!

See also:

• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Prelude
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 1
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 2
  
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 3
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Epilogue

As mentioned in my prelude, here is the countdown of my top badminton players of all-time.

To start it off:

10. Yang Yang

One of my first memories of enthralling badminton battles involved this Chinese maestro.  Incredibly skilful, his steady play sustained his grip as the world's best in the 80s.  His matches with Morten Frost are classics of the game.  And since I'm going completely out on a limb now anyway, I might as well say that his rivalry with Frost pretty much defined that particular period of world badminton.

(If you're not sure, Yang Yang's the guy with the shorts.  And yes, he used to be much younger in his playing days).

9. Lee Chong Wei

The best singles shuttler Malaysia has produced thus far.  No doubt the product of decades of cutting-edge badminton training distilled from the countless elite coaches Malaysia has employed over the years, he is still retains the undeniably Malaysian trait: inability to overcome the psychological barrier to victory.

I've expounded before on the importance of the mental capacity to actually achieve greatness, and to his credit he has been largely successful when he's not cowed by more decorated opponents (read: Lin Dan).  But he can do so much more.

Foo Kok Keong, a Malaysian stalwart from the 90s, had that persistence and mental toughness, but he didn't have the skillset.   Kok Keong has exactly the thing Chong Wei lacks.

Let not my criticism blind you to the fact: I admire the Chong Wei.  I'm a fan, no doubt about that.  But as I said before, I love badminton, I love our players, but they break my heart every time.

Could it be that Malaysians simply expect too much from their players?  Are we unreasonable to expect trophies after trophies?  Are the public simply nuts to want Chong Wei be a name mothers frighten their badminton-playing children into obedience, like the way they do with the boogeyman (and nowadays, Michael Jackson)? 

There is nothing immediately characteristic about his play - he's a excellent all-rounder, a fantastic retriever with great court coverage.  However, he seldom attacks, prefers to run his opponents around rather than to go for the kill.  He sometimes does this to such an extreme that I feel like tearing my hair out.  This is because when he does attack, he is irresistible.

World Number 1 he may be at present, but nobody who watches badminton closely believes he is the true No 1.  Not unless he manages to do justice to his superior fitness and technical ability and stop losing games he should comfortably win.

8. Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan

Of all the badminton events where the style of play have evolved over the years, the men's and women's doubles seems to have been affected the most.  The game used to be characterized with frequent smashes and brilliant defenses.  Now, the game is miles quicker, more drives and the player in front of the net is a more tactical player than ever before.

Of all the 'new' pairs out in the world, this young Indonesian pairing is by far the most interesting, lethal and, wait for it, fun to watch.

I don't care that they are not winning at the moment.  We're talking about the reigning World Champions and the holders of the Olympics Gold in 2008, a pair that was formidable before 2008, and will continue to hover at the top of the rankings in 2009.

Kido is the standard power player who can actually play at the net.  Setiawan plays sometimes like he's from another planet - the sort of shots that he can improvise sometimes defy belief.  When I watch Setiawan, I'm reminded of a football freestyler - a skilful ball player who can do things with the ball that you've never seen before (go check out Youtube if you don't know what a freestyler is). 

The only other pair that I think can generate such excitement of play is Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong.  There is only one difference between the two pairs: you can believe Kido/Setiawan will win titles, and that's why they are here.

Coming up tomorrow, more players down the list!

See also:

• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Prelude
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 1
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 2
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 3
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Epilogue
  

I've watched badminton for many years.  I love the sport and like a lot of diehard badminton freaks, lament the lack of exposure and general excitement from the public at large for this seriously entertaining game.  I love to watch other racquet games too, but if you ask me, for the excitement factor, nothing beats badminton.

Of course over the years I developed fondness for more than a few players for a variety of reasons.  Here's my attempt at recording these feelings down.  This, then, is a list of my favourite badminton players of all time.

Admittedly the 'All-Time' tag is a little bit pretentious.  Who's to say my list wouldn't change next month?  Or even next week?  Well, I'll cross the bridge when I come to it.  Consider this as the All-Time list... so far.

A couple of caveats.  I'm 31, so I'm not what you'd say an old hand.  I've never really watched Liem Swie King, Rudy Hartono, Eddy Chong.  I can't even say I remember watching Han Jian or even Misbun Sidek play.  Some may say these evergreens are the true legends, and I agree - anyone who has played the game so many years ago and are still held in high esteem must have done something to achieve this type of immortality.

However, since I cannot include people I can't remember watching into a list of my favourites, they are not represented here.  I would also argue that the game has evolved since the heydays of the game, when shuttle taps at the net and frenzied drive exchanges are not so common.  The game as it stands now is much more physical, quick and exciting, and as good as they are, I doubt the giants of yesteryear can play with the giants of today.

Please note that this list is completely subjective, irrational and emotional, and is not backed by any scientific or empirical evidence. 

This will be a multi-part posting, as I think the whole thing would be too long for a single post.

With that out of the way, let's begin. 

Tomorrow.

See also:

• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Prelude
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 1
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 2
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Part 3
• My Top 10 Badminton Players of All-Time - Epilogue

There is no choice, as I haven’t got the chops to design one of my own.  But I don’t understand why it would be so difficult to find a minimalistic theme that doesn’t have a white background?

Yet again embarking on a personal project on a whim.  I’m not spending 10 hours on this thing.  It’s either up by then, or not. 

I found this pretty good summary of what makes one of my favourite writers, Lois McMaster Bujold, tick.  I’ve written a review here of A Shard of Honor, but nothing like the breadth Elizabeth (the piece was apparently posted by Jane, but it was actually written by Elizabeth. No, I have no idea who they both are) covers in her post.

There are a couple of points where I’d differ from her, most obviously on the level of humour.  Elizabeth thinks there’s Some humour, whereas I think there’s Shitload-laugh-out-loud moments, especially for the Miles series.  Her humour is thoughtful and witty, not slapstick, and I like that.

Anyway, good coverage of her backlist, and a worth a look see.