The Chinese are Coming!

THE CHINESE ARE COMING! THE CHINESE ARE COMING!!

Ajit Chaudhuri – July 2020

I write this note about a game that I have loved without ever having played – badminton! It is a love affair that began in the mid-1970s, when the game was ruled by Indonesians (Rudy Hartono and an up and coming Liem Swie King) and Danes (Fleming Delfs and Svend Pri), when China was not represented (Chinese Taipei was China in all sports bodies), and when the annual All-England tournament was the de facto world championship (a formal world championship began in 1980, and the game was introduced in the Olympics in 1988). And I write this as a tribute to my all-time favourite badminton player, who announced his retirement earlier this month.

But more about that later! At this time, I would like to take the reader back to 1978, when there was palpable excitement among badminton lovers – we were going to get our first sight of the Chinese– its top players were coming to the Asian Games. How would they fare against the Indonesians? Would it change the world order?

The generation that brought China in from the cold were its top 3; Han Jian, Chen Changjie and Luan Jin. Han Jian went on to lose the gold medal match to Liem Swie King (the order was reversed in New Delhi in 1982) and then won the world championship in 1985 as the Chinese began to make their space in the game. The early 80s were incredible times, with an established order jostling with upcoming players (Prakash Padukone, Icuk Sugiarto and Morten Frost Hansen) for supremacy. And slowly ceding it, with Hansen ruling until another generation of Chinese players (the left-handers Zhao Jian Hua and Yang Yang, and Xiang Guobao) took control. And China has been a part of badminton’s elite ever since.

In the women’s game, the Chinese came in with two players – Han Aiping and Li Lingwei  – who went on to win everything between them, starting a Chinese domination that began to be challenged only in the mid-2010s. They played against each other ferociously in most finals, and then teamed up to play doubles together as the best of friends. I must confess to spending a fair bit of time watching them because of their looks (Aah! Aiping’s legs marking time as she waited for the high shuttle to drop – the memory stays on 40 years later). For some inexplicable reason, badminton is the best sports eye-exercise after women’s volleyball and the Chinese fared superbly on this front – subsequent world no. 1’s who would have set a catwalk alight include Xie Xingfang and Gong Ruina. Other honourable mentions would include Lene Koppen of Denmark and Susi Susanti of Indonesia. Unfortunately, most beautiful women players end up marrying male counterparts in this deeply incestuous sport.

My favourite player of that time was Sugiarto! You may wonder why, considering the only big tournament he won was the 1983 world championship (defeated Liem Swie King in a slugfest of a final – the best match I have ever seen). It was because; he was the only defensive player of those times, he had the best back-hand in the game (the only player who did not go around high tosses to play them on the forehand), and his main attacking weapon was a jumping back-hand smash that he could execute with power and precision from the baseline (again unique in those times).

And my other favourite, Prakash, with the sex god looks and the probing half-smash that invariably won him the point two rallies later. He came into the limelight with a win at the Commonwealth Games in 1978, from where we went on to win the 1980 All-England defeating Liem Swie King in the final (King returned the favour in 1981).

And then, there was the men’s doubles – possibly the fastest and most ferocious non-contact sport – where power and placement had to be combined with teamwork and stamina. The 70s had two great Indonesian teams ruling the roost; Tjun Tjun/Wahjudi and Christian/Ade Chandra. Later years saw the South Korean pair Joo Bong Pak/Moon Soo Kim and another set of Indonesians Rexy/Ricky. And the Sidek brothers of Malaysia, Razif/Jalani, who figured out how to serve so that the shuttle reached the opponents feathers-first (the service was subsequently banned).

Now – to my tribute! Badminton lovers would have got the news, earlier this month, that Lin Dan is finally retiring[1]. I feel a sense of loss – I have followed him from when he burst into the international limelight as a cocky kid, tearing through a star-studded line-up to win the 2004 All-England. He has since won everything there is in the game; 5 world championships (between 2006 and 2013, and was a losing finalist in 2005 and 2017), 2 Olympic golds (2008 and 2012), 6 All-England’s (between 2004 and 2016, and was a runner-up there as recently as 2018) and 2 Asian Games golds (2010 and 2014). I was in the stadium when he came to Delhi for the 2010 Asian Championships, when he was at the peak of his powers. And while reams have been written about him, nothing can quite describe the aura he brought on to a court. He had shortish hair that stuck out, and when he faced you and the shuttlecock was in the opponent’s court he looked like a tiger on the prowl; the hair straight up, the eyes fixed on the opponent’s movement, and the racket like a short-sword in his left hand.

It is difficult to write about Lin Dan without a mention of his wife, the glamorous Xie Xingfang – she was two years older than him and was his girlfriend from when he was 14. And his rivalry with Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, a perennial world No. 1 without winning a major tournament (they were good friends off the court).

I will miss you, Super-Dan!

---

[1] For those of my readers who do not know Lin Dan, a short detour is recommended into https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/badminton/legendary-shuttler-lin-dan-retire-6490468/