New scoring system for badminton
likely

Sunday September 4 2005 00:00 IST

HYDERABAD: The International
Badminton Federation (IBF) is
contemplating a change from the
present scoring of 15-points
system to 21 or 25.

This was revealed by Karen Koh,
chief operating officer of the
Asian Badminton Confederation.

Koh, who is here for the Asian
Badminton Championship (ABC) to
be held from September 6-11,
said this new scoring system is
to attract sponsorship and
viewers.

"We want to spread the game
and draw more viewers to the
television and to the stadium.
We want it to make it an
exciting game," she said,
adding that the new scoring
system will be experimented
during the rest days of the ABC
meet.

This will be the second time IBF
will be changing the scoring
system. Earlier in 2002, they
changed from 15 to 7 points.

But it was not accepted by many
players. The IBF had to revert
to the 15-point system for men
and 11-point for women.

Koh explained in the new scoring
system there would be no
changeover of service. It will
be like in volleyball. It may be
best of two and three sets.

WWe have taken a bit of table
tennis, volleyball and tennis
rules to make the game more
attractive and give a better
package to the viewers,'' the
Malaysian said.

Meanwhile, Koh said it was
unfortunate that top players
from China and Indonesia could
not participate in the ABC meet.
``It was by coincidence that two
other big tournaments _ China
Masters and Singapore Satellite
- are being held during this
time.

The sponsors stuck to their
dates of the China Masters while
Singapore Satellite was decided
two years back. But still we
have many good players,'' she
said. She also announced that
Thomas Cup and Uber Cup
qualifying matches would be held
in Jaipur.

[Source:
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IES20050903104604&Page=S&Title=Sport\
s&Topic=0
]

[Thanks to Larry for the info!]

-- CLBP Moderators