According to the Chinese papers Flandy Limpele/Eng Hian will be playing in the Singapore Open for Indonesia. Sony will not be playing. The Indonesia coach said that they hope to get one or two medals from this year Singapore Open.
confirmation Confirmed. The draw is out and Flandy/Eng Hian are under Ina. Wonder what happened? End of contract? One or both parties declined to continue. Interesting the two have decided to go back to Ina after all the problems in PBSI that caused so any players to leave.
Maybe England would not grant Flandy and Eng citizenship...as it seems they were just used and abused. Flandy won a tournament with Simon Archer, which demonstrates his flexibility...maybe they are going to be split up..to pair up with Sigit or to provide experience to Juniors and 2nd team players. I think Indonesia was embarrased to leave the WC with no golds, and is putting too much pressure on Taufik, Sony and Candra/Sigit to provide for them. Candra obviously doesn't want to mess up in the olympics, so has ditched flamboyant Sigit for reliable Halim Haryanto. Unless things go drastically wrong, we probably won't see Sigt back with Candra for a while.
On the other hand Either that...or the Indonesian coaches have a surprise tactic and are just resting Sigit. Similar tactic used by Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham....Alex Ferguson had previously got slated for putting David Beckham on the bench..what he really did, was to keep him hungry and motivated, so that he would peak at the right time. He does it a lot with his star players, but then he has a large talented squad to choose from. Indonesia hasn't..but with Flandy and Eng Hian returning, maybe this has given them a bit of headroom to tinker with their setup.
NEWS: Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian Have Returned to PBSI Jakarta, Kompas – The 4th seeded world’s men double players, Flandi Limpele (29) / Eng Hian (26), have returned to rejoin PBSI after their retreat in July 2001. Their arrival has enlightened PBSI to have one more strong weapon to keep the tradition of achieving the gold medals in the Olympics. Their arrival was confirmed by the Chairman of PB PBSI, Chairul Tanjung, in press conference, Wednesday (2/7). Besides Tanjung and the two players also came Christian Hadinata – the PBSI Cipayung Director, Rudy Hartono – the PB PBSI Project Manager for Olympics 2004, and the International Relations Director – Sulistiyanto. “They returned by their own will in reply to PB PBSI notice for players who are in overseas to return and defend Indonesia,” Tanjung commented. Two years ago the two players decided to leave PBSI Cipayung with the reason of feeling incapable to compete with the other two men double teams, Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto and Tony Gunawan/Halim Haryanto. Not long after that, Flandi/Eng Hian departed to England and became the sparring partners for the local England players in the BA of E (Badminton Association of England). Indeed, year 2001 was a gloomy time for Flandi/Eng Hian. Not only that their rank was sliding down from the world’s number one men’s double team in the end of 2000, but they also often failed to get through the important rounds in the world’s badminton grand prix tournaments. While in fact, earlier to that time and since they won the first prize in Korea Open 1999, Flandi/Eng Hian would at least went down in the quarter-final. Only in AE 1999 and 2000 that they lost in the 1/8 round. Headquartered in England, Flandi/Eng Hian has been improving. They succeeded to collect 3 titles within 8 months, which were in Spore Open 2002, Swiss Open 2003, and Japan Open 2003. These winning numbers have equalled their triumph when they were still in Cipayung (in Korea Open 1999, Malaysia and Denmark Open 2000). Sulistiyanto explained that prior to the return of Flandi/Eng Hian PBSI had contacted BA of E. “At first we only asked F/E status in BA of E and they replied that F/E are still needed in accordance to the extent that F/E’s existence has improved the performance of England’s players.” Although BA of E intended to extend the contract of F/E, which will be concluded in the end of this July, BA of E then stated that they supported F/E’s intention to go back to PBSI Cipayung as to the conclusion of their contract. F/E will start their practice in Cipayung in August 1. F/E added, their main motivation to return is to defend the Indonesian team. “We still want to participate in the Athena’s Olympics. We hope that we’d be able to contribute a medal,” Flandi said. In Sydney Olympics 2000 they were beaten by Lee Wan Wah / Choong Tan Fook of Malaysia. Tanjung affirmed that PB PBSI will not treat F/E differently as compared to the other players. But, PB PBSI has committed to carry out a fair reward and punishment system to them. Their earning from the contract will be competitively compared to the extent to how much Indonesian players could earn in overseas. Eng Hian added that one reason that encourages him to come back is the clear system promised by PB PBSI. “If you want to work, of course you expect a clarity and this is what’s happening at the moment,” Eng Hian said. (YNS) (Translated by: Dania Ciptadi)
Re: confirmation Apparently, they left PBSI not because of internal conflict but because of the hardship of tough competition in the PBSI itself. But, yes, they return as a part of the end of their contract with the BA of E, but I'd rather say that they're aiming for playing in the olympics regardless which country they play for. Well, I hope I'm wrong and they're telling the truth that they really want to play for and defend INA.
Thanks for that information. It seems contractual difficulties with PBSI also played a part. In my experience of organisations (not referring to PBSI), what is promised and what actually is acheived are two different things... wonder how things will turn out............
i remembered clearly that many people were unhappy when Chairul Tanjung was elected as the chairman of PBSI. could this be one of the reason that lots of Indonesian players are moving abroad?
Im wondering about the same thing as well: Why so many Indo players left Indo and play in overseas. If the problem(s) is in PBSI, what's wrong with PBSI? Is it about earning, internal management, or just as simple as because of the harsh and tough internal competition within the players themselves (as F/E mentioned as their reason to leave PBSI 2 years ago)? I've been trying to ask some sources regarding this issue. I hope I can get some more insights and post them here. PS: Regarding Chairul Tanjung, I never heard about strong negative opinion towards him except that many people are still in favour of the previous chairman, Try Sutrisno. Another news reported that after Try Sutrisno left his position in PBSI, the number of national badminton training and education centres was decreased to ONLY 20 in such a big country like Indonesia! This happens due to financial problem because, in fact, PBSI has been depending so much on sponsorship (apparently, Sutrisno has a great approach on networks and sponsorship - he used to be the vice-president of Indonesia).
