Evidence of 'arranged' results between Chinese shuttlers

Dev S Sukumar

All the rumourmongering about the Chinese seems to have basis in fact. Popular badminton website Badzine.net has analysed the statistics of China versus China matches this year and concluded that an astonishing 20 per cent of matches is not completed — that is, players have either not taken to the court, or retired midway citing injury or health problems. This essentially means that, apart from letting down ticket-purchasing spectators, Chinese players get an unfair advantage while progressing in the tournament.

This is probably the most damning indication of the Chinese playing the game in poor spirit. Until now, nobody had taken the trouble to analyse past matches and make a strong case. Teams have mostly levelled allegations but the Chinese haven’t bothered to defend themselves, secure in the knowledge that nobody would have foolproof evidence or the political will to take them on.

While the Chinese are the super heavyweights of world badminton, with no equals in sight, they don’t have too many friends on the circuit. Apart from their general aloofness, what has irked other nations consistently is the record of China versus China matches.

It is commonly believed on the circuit that most of these matches are decided beforehand by the team management, particularly chief coach Li Yongbo. There is little the international community or the Badminton World Federation (BWF) can do about this, for such suspicions are not provable. But ‘pre-decided’ matches can be galling to viewers, especially if they have paid good money for tickets and are looking forward to a good day’s contest.

Evidence has mostly been circumstantial. I recall the 2008 All England final between Lin Dan and Chen Jin in which Lin Dan mysteriously developed a knee problem halfway through the second game and went on to lose the match — but apparently the knee healed within a week, for he won the Swiss Open! Everybody in the media believed that Lin Dan had ‘thrown’ that match to enable Chen Jin to garner enough ranking points for the Beijing Olympics.

Li Yongbo himself admitted in an interview to Chinese website Sina.com in 2008 that the Athens Olympics (2004) women’s singles semifinal, between Chinese players Zhang Ning and Zhou Mi, was allowed to go Zhang Ning’s way after she won the first game. Zhou Mi was instructed not to work too hard, so that Zhang could go fresh into the final. Zhang did win the gold, against Mia Audina of Indonesia.

Yongbo’s admission created plenty of heat and dust, with the Badminton Players Federation calling for a ban on Chinese players, but the international federation hasn’t been able to do much.

Most recently, at the French Open Superseries in October, Lin Dan and compatriot Chen Long played such a tame opening game that the audience booed at them. The Badminton World Federation had announced some measures in August, and promised that “if compelling evidence is found of any irregularities, the matter will be treated with the utmost gravity by the BWF and severe penalties will be imposed” but it is unclear how it can act, considering the kind of political clout China wields.

Badzine’s analysis of all the matches in 2010 threw up interesting results. It reports: “Chinese shuttlers met each other 99 times on the circuit this year, and 20 matches were either not played at all (11 walkovers) or played partially before one of the opponents retired (9 retirements). This shows that 20.20% of matches between Chinese shutters were not completed in 2011.” This was in contrast to 0.74% of incomplete matches between the Chinese and other nations.

In fact, just last week, a China vs China women’s doubles match, in the semifinals of the World Superseries Finals, resulted in a walkover. Indian fans will be interested to know that the Wang Yihan-Wang Xin semifinal match ended in straight games for Yihan, who went on to play Saina Nehwal in the final. The complexion of the final would doubtless have changed if Yihan had been stretched in a long three-game match.

‘Pre-arranged’ results in badminton is no less a crime than doping or match-fixing, for it devalues the contest. It will be interesting to see how BWF reacts to Badzine’s report.