There is no denying that the local badminton scene is declining as compared to the days of the 1949, 1952 and 1955 Thomas Cup held in Singapore where Malaya (while S'pore was part of M'sia) brought the Cup back home. If you look at it today, Malaysia (won the ThomasCup 2000) is still of world standards whereas Singapore is nowhere. Why so? It seems sad that S'pore has to resort to importin' foreign talents for success, even then they don't seem to be makin' the headlines in the badminton arena... PM Goh even set the standard for S'pore to qualify for the 2012 Thomas Cup and says "We should try to produce another Wong Peng Soon". Is this gonna be possible? What say you?
Get the facts right buddy,Malaysia did not win the Thomas Cup 2000.In fact it didn't even make it to the semi-finals. Of course S'pore's badminton standard is no where near Malaysia's at the moment. 2012 is 11 years away.Anything can happen in the intervening period.The SBA could make a concerted effort anytime from now onwards.How it is going to do it i can't imagine now.But the possibility is there.......to get into the Thomas Cup finals but winning it is another matter.
Too materialistic ? Maybe we live in a very materialistic society, where every rewards need to be measured in monetary terms. People here are more busy trying to make a living and get 5Cs, then to spend time on sports. Of coz another reason which is also related to money is that in Singapore, you dun get a lot of money being a Professional. Even for soccer, they are paid a pittance compared to their brethen elsewhere, then again, the standards are so much different.
