在羽球王国打羽球

Weather: Haze

Temperature: 32°


China is the reigning champion of Sudirman Cup, Thomas Cup & Uber Cup: almost all the prestigous cups in Badminton. Not only that, currently World Number One for Men Singles, Women Singles, Men Doubles and Women Doubles are all Chinese players. If China is not a 羽球王国 (Badminton Kingdom), I do not know what it is.

Since I came to Shanghai a week ago, I had skipped my exercise sessions at Y-Fitness Klang. The only exercise I frequently do in China is: walking and sweating under the hot sun.

Today is Sunday. I thought I could sleep until the sun burns my backside. Fortunately Bom woke me up at around 9 am. "Wake up! We are going to play badminton."

Badminton? In China? Emm... It must be an exciting experience. Though my whole body was furiously protesting, I was happy to drag my half asleep body to bathroom, wash my face, change to sport attire and exit the apartment.

"Today we have 8 players coming. All but one are Malaysian" Bom informed me when we were waiting for the bus. Remember I said KPMG Shanghai hires about 200 Malaysians? I was not surprised at all playing badminton with fellow Malaysians on Chinese soil.

It was the same badminton hall I went to meet Bom when I first reached Shanghai. I did not describe the badminton hall in my previous article so I will briefly describe it here.

It was a small hall. Nothing compares to our badminton halls back home. In Malaysia, we play badminton in school halls or indoor stadiums. The school halls or indoor stadiums are normally spacious. There are at least a few feet in between the courts and the distance between the walls and the end of the courts are normally quite far apart to avoid accident or injury or to allow people walking between these courts.

But here, it was a different scene. Since it was a small hall and has limited space, they maximise the use of space by cramping as many badminton courts as possible in the small hall. The space between the courts is small and worst still, the distance between the end of the court to the wall is only about 1 meter, which means if you do a jumping smash at the far end of the court and fall down, it is likely that you might bang into the wall behind you.

Badminton is a sport so common in Malaysia. Almost every family has badminton rackets. Anyone who has the time can simply draw a court on the road infront of your house and start playing. Because our weather and space allow such activity.

That explains why Malaysian plays better in this badminton hall. We are quite good in terms of our basic skill and position. Though we are in the land of "Badminton Kingdom" we outdo almost all Chinese players in the hall.

Bom told me that in their inter department badminton tournament, the champion, the 1st runner up, the 2nd runner up and the 3rd runner up were all Malaysians.

I think averagely and generally, Malaysian plays better badminton. But why we are not the 羽球王国? Why the Thomas Cup, Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup are currently not kept in Malaysia?

Bom and his playmate Maggie. Nope, I mean Badminton partner.