it might be all that the sport has going for it ... the competition between badminton nations. Take that away and alot of support would likely fall away

but would it be better if badminton was more like tennis? - where a players country is less important than his favorite snack food. alot of tennis players dont care about davis cup or olmypics or playing for thier country at all - its a professional sport with all players training and competing for the prize and glory.

the nationalism in badminton is cool for olympics and thomas cup - but in general its not so good for players from other countries that don't have soo much support for badminton?

in tennis you get really excited with the matchups rather than the nations - a night match between 2 top players at the us open is like a prize fight. but this seems less so in badminton where its country vs country.

opinions?

No matter if he is trying not to represent his/her nation, there will be a sense of nationalism when the player is in such an important tournament.

If there wasn't any nationalist or regionalist player for any type of port, it would get dull. It would be liike Nascar and Golf(sorry to most Nascar Fans and Gulf Farns), it would be something that wouldn't be appeaing to younger generations.

It's like Foot ball in the USA. The 49er of SF, California is loved by most SFers (people who live in SF) even if they lose a few games or not. It's a sense of pride that attract spectators.