NBA is big, noisy, violent, screaming, shouting but because its american so "its alright"

I agree, it's not because they're not handed millions of dollars that it has to take away from the sport. Whenever a sport becomes too commercial it loses some of it's value in my opinion. Sure I'd like the sport at the top level to be more rewarding for the players, but on the other hand if it wasn't rewarding enough there'd be no professional badminton players, and there are plenty of them.

The sport will grow I'm sure.. it's very easy to begin playing badminton, and it's rewarding as you start playing better. I think in Asia it's going the right way.. but in Europe we need to make the sport more popular.. there's much potential but not enough oppurtunities for those who have potential to make it big, due to lack of facilities, trainers, and popularity.

Sometimes we are happy with the things as it is, sports is like global business nomination. KFC, Maccas, Coca-cola etc , if it isn't USA, it will not make it big. Look at basketball, fair game but not great but is huge in america, so its huge in money. The asians are just happy with badminton, table tennis, squash as it is. We need LD or LCW to be american. Tiger Woods is half asian. Should a sport be nominated by big dollars to make it big and exciting?, for LCW, for you or for me? Eastern culture is different, we are mainly quiet achievers, white skin people always have superiority complex and my own experience (studied in UK, work in Europe and lived in Australia) gave me some valuable insights. Wherever I work, white people will say "my god, you are smart(for a chinese)" We don't advertie, cos we know.

The key point i want to make is if you look at asia, how many multimillion dollar sports atheltes are there? i dont think there are many. Tiger woods is set to become the first billion dollar athlete! that from a man who shoots golf balls into a hole...golf isnt even a pure sport like track and field, it isnt even a sports game like football, but it is a game-sport above a pure game of lets say...chess. Not to take anything away from Tiger Woods, he is arguably the best at what he does, but can you imagine him running a mile on a track? He'd be in a coma! As for afluent asians and i dont disagree that there are, but being affluent doesnt mean that their wealth will rub off on others. Most ppl know that the majority of rich folk wouldnt even throw a dime to anyone but themselves. Just because one is rich doesnt garantee that they are generous. In the west ppl and companies pay millions to superstar athletes because their mentality is that if something is good, they are willing to pay for it. Not so in the east. This is reflected in many things in the culture and their sporting events. i know the first thing i'd do is to at least " class up" those tournaments. No more drums, bells and whistles and jeering going on during play, no more cheezy music during intermissions, higher ticket prices and purses, more better marketing , more hype. i hope someday a few ppl with some foresight and some finanacial courage will grow the sport of badminton for what it is. finally, alot of wealthy asians im sure own mercedes and even a rolls royce. Now ask yourself this..where are those cars made? Do you see my point? They are willing to pay for something made in a foregin country..but why not take that resource and try to create something great locally? Why must so many affluent people refuse to raise the status of their own people and trade? And this is not a slight on Eastern culture..as it happens in many other countries. I geuss that Eurythmics song "sweet dreams" was right. " some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused." Merry x-mas to everyone.

Nomad,

You have some good points here, thanks. However, we are living in a different world now. I am from Melbourne, the food capital of Australia. There is a Chinese restaurant here called The Flower Drum (many excellent but not cheap ones too), it has been voted once simply the best Chinese restaurant in the world. Before GFC, you need to book weeks in advance and a cheap meal would set you back US$100 per head minimum. Yes badminton is considered a backyard port by innocent westerners but that's not our (asian) problem. It is simply the fastest racket sport in the world, crowds are fanatical not more so than sambal football sspporters in Latin American. I flew to KL which costs me more than $1,500 just to watch LCW or Nicol David (know who she is?) play. ALots of asians in Melbourne are like me are highly affluent, we drive BMWs, we are doctors, brain surgeons or at least CPAs and we love our sport called badminton and squash, we don't give a monkey what other white or middle eastern people think. But, all men are brothers, we love them and we hope they respect us, our culture, our sport as much as we respect theirs. Have a good x'mas, sir.

First of all just because fans do it doesnt make it right. Just because racist European football fans jeer racial insults and throw things onto the field doesnt mean we should have them in badminton torunies either. Second my overall point is one about the image of the game. badminton is considered a backyard sport in many countries, sad isnt it? ouch, that hurts..backyard...it didnt even make it to been called "ameteur" The problem lies in what i call the "Asian Food Syndrome". We all like asian food right? But we never want to pay a higher price for it. Owners of restaurants never want to charge more, customers never want to pay more, and subsequently employees get paid the lousy wages they get year after year after decade. This is the same for badminton. Greedy narrow sighted promoters never see badminton as a multi million dollar sport, fans dont wanna pay alot to watch the games, etc.Imagine if you were a foreigner watchign a baddy tournie for the first time. You pay about lets say 30-40 bucks to get in for the day, you hear nothing but rude noisy fans, you hear umpires who can hardly say the word" service over" let alone speak fluent english, you hear announcements being blasted over the stadium while games are in play, you hear weird and cheesy music during 11 point intermissions.. what would you think? would you come back? I know i wouldnt. compared to tennis tournies it's like an inner city slum festival. If you want badminton to be taken seriously, it starts with the fans and the promoters taking it seriously. in the west, the mentality there is, " if its good, were willing to pay for it." In the east, it's well," i dont want to pay this much for it no matter what." IT IS HIGH TIME FOR ASIANS TO STOP SHORT CHANGING THEMSELVES. lack of foresight selfish promoters along with narrow minded fans are the real reason why badminton isnt big in most places in the world. Everyone is the east says how much they love the game...but ask them..ask each and everyone of them" how much are you willing to pay to see lcw and lin dan?' Their answer will not surprise anyone. So the next time you walk into a malaysian, and indonesian, and chinese restaurant..ask yourself, why do so many of the workers there look so unhappy? Asians dont need to blame the west for looking down on them ,rightly or wrongly.They do a good job looking down on their own brothers and sisters. That is the sad and brutal truth.

I don't believe LYB thinks this way as fans in China are the same. It is Indonesian, Malaysian charismatic style, Pro players should get use to these rubbish thrown at them. In sports, European fans can be worse, in football, if you are black and good players, they hurl racial abuse at you. Indons fans "hate" malaysian players the most, traditional arch rivals. They boo at any Malay players, still LCW won there etc. To be a true Champ, one should win anywhere regardless. You go to any major tournaments, not picking the tourney you like. In badminton, apart from SS, we should have 5 Super Slam tourney like AE, Dannish SS, Malaysian SS, Indon SS and China SS. Any player who won 3 or more than anyone else is truly a great Champ in a non-Olymoic year. The WC should not be annual but bi-annual etc.

It's not a secret that chinese coach Li yong bo prefers his team to compete in Europe rather then in Indonesia and Malaysia. Presumably, it's not because of the competition but because of the fans. There's nothing more annoying as a player then to have fans yell and pound those annoying drums and whisltes while the players are playing the dam point. You even hear those idiots during the All England, everytime a player goes up for a msash you can hear uncle moron yelp out like some jackal as if somehow his yelling will give LCW more power. You make so musch as a whisper in a tennis or golf match and they throw you out. so this is badminton some will say. Im a badminton fan but in tournies where this stuff happens on a regular basis just shows everyone else how low brow and crass these events seem to be. Watch the All England sometime, you hear those morons yelling out during Lin and LCW playing while also hearing the British fans shuushing them and telling them to shut up. At least the fans in Europe have more respect for the players then in many countries in Asia and if the chinese team where never to play in the other asian countries it wouldnt surprise or sadden me one bit.

Badmintonxpert, aren't you Sam or Lay?? once my partner and I were 12-19 down playing to 21, I urged my partnet to steady cos I sensed my opponents game was collapsing and we won 21-19. I think, mental toughness can only be improved by only about 30% with professional help, it is my belief that one is born with or without. So guys like Bjorn Borg, Rudy Hartono, LD and most Korean players are those born naturally with mental toughness. In squash, once I was 0-9, 0-8 down and still won 0-9, 10-9, 9-6, 9-1!! I was not arragant, I just refuse to let my opponent win.

once it happened to me too, i was playing double and we were leading 19-12 and we found a way to lose in ot. its so difficult to keep the pace when you have a huge lead!!its a mental thing so please, i forgive lcw for those errors and im happy that somehow, he found a way to keep his focus and win the game!!if ld is so confident about beating lcw, why dont he ask him a game..like they did in tennis! a country whenever he wants and im pretty sure that lcw will accept his challenge!ld is a star in his head. Ps:lcw ur crazy to participate in 10 ss!!but i forgive u lol..tx j for those uploads!!somehow ur promoting the sport!!

jason, youtube video is not as fast what u are using before.... i like those videos... but these last videos were so slow... dos videos from all england up to the world championships were fast and in high quality... hope that those type of videos will be used again in the next tournaments... thank you... perfect site for badminton addicts...

Wow! great site.
Any idea what racket does LCW uses during the JB SS ?
Though his official racket is AT900 P but the frame does not look like in during the recent JB SS.

i dunno what actually made my day...either women team ended their 34 yrs old wait in Laos Games (even sweeter by beating our tradition nemesis, Indonesia) OR unheralded Koran stuns Lin Dan (using tired as an excuse..lol)

well done LCW and hard luck for park . when LCW will defeat lin dan i will destribute sweats . it was nice video and high quality thanks for uploading matches very quickly

LD struggled at the East Asian Games today, it took him 3 sets to beat S Sasaki in team event, then in Semi individual, he struggled to beat Son, Wanho (who?) 21-12, 23-21 in 43 minutes. Needless to say, in the final, he lost to Choi HoJin (Choi who?) 19-21,18-21. All you LCW knockers, LD won't win if he is in the Grand Prix Finals.

Yes it is a mental game plus the "war Room" strategies. LD is one helluva godsent pupil. When the coaches gave him certain instructions, he followed to the latter with aplomb. Behind every big match, there's more than 5 other off court generals. Everyone loves a winner, I am different, I don't wait for LCW to win the big ones, I predicted he will soon change the tide, how else would I make myself different from arm chair critic?

Chew these facts, LCW beat LD in Sudirman (Scotland) & Thomas (Jakarta) Cups when these tourneys are outside China. It won't be easy to get the better of LD, just ask Park Sung Hwan, he used to be his nemesis but the coaches did all the homework.

@Kim

I don't think the tide is changing. Until I see LCW beat LD on a big stage (AE or Thomas Cup or Sudirman Cup), I will not be convinced that LCW has turned the tide.

It's a lot like the Roger vs Rafa rivalry, LD has gotten into LCW's head just like Rafa into Roger's. I think it is more of a mental problem that LCW can't seem to beat LD when it really matters.

We will see soon if the tide is really turning

From 5-13 to 15-16, nice work Park! Too bad he didnt win.

Is LD the Roger Federer of Tennis or Tiger Woods of Golf (no jokes on the no. of blonde women you scored please)? Well, Roger played in the Masters Finals but didn;t win and yesterday, Sho Sasaki (LD's nemesis) won the first game 21-14 and was leading 19-18 in the second at the East Asian Games Team Event. LD is very good but not invincible. LCW and LD's head to head this year (2009) is 3-1 and is not as bad as it looks. Sudirman Cup, China Masters were home ground to LD and outside China, it is 1-1 (AE to LD and Swiss SS to LCW).
Next year 2010, the Thomas Cup Finals will be in KL and I believe LCW and LD will clash 3-4 times in 2010 with the HTH (head to head) 2-1 for LCW. The tide is changing...

Jasonn!!! You gave away the scores on the vids before I even started them lol, its the picture before you click play!

I agree, if he doesn't take part in the tournament, he can't win, plain and simple. LCW plays alot of tournaments, LD only picks a "select few" that way he is alot better equipped when he does actually play, and fatigue is out of the question. He plays everything safe, not to mention he IS a great player, but don't take away from any victory just because LD wasn't there.

A couple of nice points in this matchup, alot of unforced errors from LCW aswell.

We are lucky to have witnessed two fine players in the same era. The next two SS tourney are 6-11 Jan 2010 Malaysian Open and 13-18 Jan 2010 Korean Open. LD will skip Malaysian SS and LCW might skip the Korean so the next meeting will be AE which starts 8 March. 2008 AE was won by LD in two freat , tight sets. Of course a week later, LCW beat LD in two much easier sets but the standard of play was out of this world, you can watch both these matches on this site.

Funny, eaxh time when LCW plays great, all arm-chair critics bring LD into the equation. Suddenly, the Japanese, american, Indon and all non chinese critics become PRC Chinese for a second. I have said many times before, in Malaysia, there are only 7 million chinese, not 1,334,018,022 in China, not 307,896,665 in US, not 230,729,491 in Indon or 127,614,000 in Japan. Malaysia is proud of LCW, that's why they make him a Dato (knighthood).

When LCW plays good, just leave LD out of the equation or tell LD to play in Malaysia like LCw always play in China Open.

LCW is without any doubts a great, great player. Park hadn't too much to come with, since LCW downed the pace in second game. BUT, I'm droooooling to see LCW vs Lin Dan! Any ideas where they both are in the same tournament?
I would bet for Lin Dan, for sure.

God, i though Park was in Military training camp??
If yes, they must be having great food in the camp!!!
L.C.W. only looking good, when L.D. is not around
:) :)
Any way Thx Jason, for the upload