Two more female foreign-born players quit SBA

Stayers, not quitters

The Straits Times

Terrence Voon
Sports Reporter

November 25, 2008 Tuesday, 07:04 PM


REMEMBER Li Li?

She was Singapore's Number One female shuttler up until January this year, when she quit the national badminton squad because of "personal reasons".

According to the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA), she has been agitating for a return in recent months. The reasons behind her change of heart were unclear, but officials recently re-opened negotiations regarding a comeback.

Now, it seems that she has made another U-turn, with insiders saying the China-born shuttler was unhappy over the terms of her new contract. This brings the SBA back to where it was in January: Nowhere.

Enough is enough. No athlete - local-born or otherwise - is too big for the sport, especially those who decided to leave before.

Li, who was plucked from Wuhan in 1997 and brought to Singapore, won the Commonwealth Games singles title in 2002. It earned her a ticket on board Project 0812, the Singapore National Olympic Council initiative aimed at clinching Olympic medals.

There are plenty of reasons, not all of them sports-related, why Li should not be given another chance.

First of all, having spent almost a year on the sidelines, her competitive edge might have blunted. There is no guarantee that the 25-year-old is at least as good as she was when she left, and, with the SEA Games just a year away, the Association cannot afford to take a chance on someone whose fitness and ability is now suspect.

Secondly, reinstating Li would be a slap in the face for the younger female shuttlers in the Singapore squad, who have thrived in her absence.

Xing Aiying, for instance, has beaten top-ranked players like Tracy Hallam and Zhou Mi this year. Fu Mingtian and Yao Lei also won the World Juniors Championship recently.

How would they react if they slid down the pecking order again, because a former teammate decided to return?

Thirdly, the SBA has a moral obligation to say no to a player who obviously has her own interests at heart, not her adopted country's.

Take throwers Zhang Guirong, Du Xianhui and Dong Enxin, for instance.

The athletics trio have all returned to China, after months of waffling and squabbling with the Singapore Athletics Association.

To avoid a repeat performance, the door should be shut firmly in the face of Li. Singapore sports needs stayers, not quitters.

 

I'm sorry for Li Li, who could have brought much more joy to Singaporeans after her stunning victory as the Commonwealth WS Champion in the 2002. She was given the rare chance to compete in the recent Beijing Olympics, yet she let her personal problems derail her ambitions.

Of course SBA would have given her all the necessary support and even now after her request to return to the fold, she was given due consideration. I believe SBA certainly values her 'sacrifice' from the time she was first scouted in her early teens and brought here in 1997 for further training. And I think Li Li was a member of the first batch of 3 to 4 China girls who survived the test of time and remained in Singapore.

Yes, I agree that her form has dropped quite a bit and she should not have imposed too much from the SBA until she has proven herself again against the fast progressing girls junior than herself.

But if she is committed and willing to work hard to regain her fitness and form, then Singapore will be able to field a more creditable women's team for international competitions. It would be even more joyous to see Gu Juan changing her mind and joining back her Singaporean family again.

 

So now you know George is too busy to read. But give him an interesting article on the hottest sweetie taking up baddy, with an accompanying 'pic-ky', you will set him aflame, buddy!

 

Maybe 3? This article has been duplicated 3 times here. Is that what you meant?