Actually from the very beginning to the point where they're chosen to join the provincial squad, the kids are self(aka parental) funded nowadays. The very best of the juniors (before they get selected into the provincial squad) gets about 600 RMB in allowance. Those are far and few in between. But overall in terms of expenses, the kids are looking at 10k+ (rmb) a year in expense. Really doesn't sound like much, but the days of state sponsored training for 6 year olds are long gone I think.
if you don't think GC is biased you really need to listen to her objectively, she clearly has her favourites. She doesn't like a lot of chinese players though definitely. However, i'm not convinced she's anti chinese, she's really likes Cai/Fu for sure.
there will always be bias and GC is only human. for the most part she's pretty good as a commentator, i just find her comments very superficial and not as technical as those from the commentators from HK. i think even morten frost is more technical than she is...but that's just me. i still love her tho, always looking forward to her comments as soon as the live streaming starts
GC is perhaps still the best choice for the bwf to have a dedicated commentator running through all tournaments. But I think her commentary has been in decline in quality since many years, repeating the same repertoire of words, commenting on the line calls, spelling out figures without anything on tactics on court. I simply have got fatigue listening to GC. That said, she's still much better than most other commentators.
Though this thread is fully dedicated to Chen Long, the debate has gone to GC's commentating (and her bias ?? ), i would like to mention my opinion about this. Like all the chinese friends here spoke about GC's biased nature during matches(against china as far as i understood) and introducing sideline commentators from HongKong etc etc, i wanna mention here that badminton is for whole world that includes 100 countries(still increasing ), not only for china(China is already a superpower nation in badminton). Gillian Clarke might have got an inside mentality to support upcoming nations than giving her full support to China alone.. Some of BC friends here had mentioned that GC has clearly indicated her favourites clearly. I am asking one thing here ,if she is a commentator, does that mean she should not have favourites of her own or does she need to favour only chinese players??? . No offense. I can't accept calling her as anti-chinese and even somebody gone overboard politically making comments about westerners and their behaviours. These are all not necessary. Everybody likes chinese for their true fighting spirit and their excellent training methods. The only thing which divides westerners and chinese is the communication. Though i am indian, i can tell you one thing that even those gap has started to reduce. Only matter of time. You will find many sports persons from china will communticate to media by themselves without any translators . If you are able to communicate to whole world, then it will reduce the gap between those people drastically. That is for sure. So, no need to worry about that. Nowadays, if you support a country which is an upcoming nation of that particular sport then that will pave way for the welfare of the sport and their country men. I feel it that way. I never blame Commentators for their biased behaviour... Even she has favourites (mentioning a few i know)such as WangYihan, Cai Fu, Wang Xin and Zhang Ning etc.. I have seen so many matches where she is making a load of praises about these players .
Commentators when they are on-air should provide non-biased commentary to the best of their abilities. Watch the world feed for world cup matches, watch the f1 commentary by Brundle during a race. Those guys will praise anyone who puts in a good performance and be critical of anyone with poor behaviour. I never minded GC, I didnt care for her last year after the Olympics when she kept on harping on KHN and WXL (pairs....u know the reason)...then I watched the AE WS semis....appalling would be my description for her and her colleague.
the problem with GC is she does not truly go in depth about the tactics that are being played. only on a very superficial level ocassinially. it's not a cardinal sin but over the many years it's just boring. it's such a stark difference when you have kenneth and gc commentating in the cl and LCw final. more on cl though he has such a explosive stroke his swing is so small but so powerful !
I think Chen Long is a more calm and calculated player than LCW is.... this is what badminton should be about.... LCW is more like a player who was forced to produce good badminton as a source of living because of lack opportunities in other fields for his ethnicity in malaysia perhaps... but Chen Long is a stable player that is perhaps more suited for badminton in my opinion... LCW is more like a table tennis player... LCW has to make so much effort or dive a lot during his matches just to retrieve shuttles.... this makes him vulnerable when he is not in good form or did not have much practice ahead of games... if i had a choice, i would choose to be chen long rather than LCW... even though LCW is the player with a higher success rate...
i think that is mainly due to body physique as well. chen long can play long calculated cos he is tall and has good reach. LCw is small and he needs to make use of his speed because that is his best advantage. if he doesn't use his speed he will be like the old LCw good but not awesome
Pretty sure it was because his mom didn't want him to play basketball in the Malaysian sun, so his dad took him to play badminton, which also happens to be the national sport and someone noticed that he was really good ... but you could be right. Isn't this true for all players?
I personally think GC do nice job in commenting matches. But it is true that she has a little biased in her commentating, and that biased particularly related with LCW. You can hear it when LCW is playing his matches. What is CL next tournament? Australian GP?
Well my opinion is the opposite: Better be creative and ready to create some surprising moves (LCW) instead of calculable and a little bit too boring play style (CL). Surprising shots from CL are very rare, that's something what spectators would call "boring". I hope he will be inspired by LCW a little bit in the future. On the other hands, it's maybe a style influenced by his nation (chinese = hard work, results, lower priority for creativity and selfpleasure, just do your thing for the results, that's what counts). In AE2013 I cheered for CL, he was the better player and saved so many points. He really deserved it.
I beg to differ, in my opinion LCW's style would appear to be even more 'chinese' than CL's style... LCW's quality 'cunningness, trickery, deceptiveness, change of pace and less physical strength' is a chinese trait to a higher degree in my book. Having a different nationality doesn't make you less chinese, in fact it could be the other way round... because to survive in a non-chinese country you need to show more of your chinese qualities to convince the locals with your distinctive traits... -----
Posted on 02-27-2009 Posted on 04-17-2009 After surfing the whole thread, just found out that Chen Long's destiny was predicted by the Greats 4 years ago !!!
Regarding Gillian Clark, Indeed she is a good commentator in some areas, but I hate to say but the truth (at least to me) that she is very unprofessional in her commentary, too subjective! For a professional commentator, she should not say or express her opinion for particular player/nation as the way she always does. Sometimes (or many times), her commentary is just very annoying! By the way, she is the BWF official's commentator, isn't she? (Corret me if I am wrong). Does she forget that the audience is from all over the world?
yea, chen long was predicted to be the future of MS... he has changed the complexion of the game from what is perceived to be a sissy sport to a more physical sports.... did you see those final smashes from chen long.... we need more players like him instead of these creative players who only know how to deceive opponents but very weak physically.... i am all for chen long to rise to the top... bring back the times of rudy hartono and tan yee khan !!! more physical players pleaseee... ---------
I have just watched the semis of the AE, Chen Long and JOJ, nice match, and Gilian Clark is doing a fine job, quite neutral actually