Among the Asian countries, Indonesia is one of the badminton juggernauts, often overriding other leading badminton Asian nations like Malaysia and China for titles.
The success story is such that Indonesia often gets at least a gold medal in many Olympic and Asian games conducted so far.
The Indonesian Badminton Federation (PBSI) is the organization responsible for the huge success of badminton in Indonesia. It was formed during 1951 in Bandung.
Since Indonesian badminton players from localities do not get as much attention as their Chinese counterparts, the Indonesian Badminton Federation had started conducting many National sport events in Badminton like National sport Championships. In this manner, the junior local players ascended to world level professionals bringing home many badminton glories.
In the case of Indonesian Badminton, both the Government and Private sector organizations take the responsibility of noting a local player's talent and grooming him. The Government badminton training centers are known as PELATNAS (National Training Center).
In PELANTAS (National Training Centers), the training and coaching is not as intensive as in the private training centers. It is due to the fact that in National Training Centers, the training players are not the just young ones, but also consists of experienced and professional players. Whereas in private badminton training centers, predominantly only the young talented and interested players are groomed to become professionals at world level.
Indonesians consider the Thomas cup, Uber cup and the Sudirman cup as very precious and makes every attempt to win them. The same intensity is also seen with other leading badminton savvy Asian countries that non-Asian countries have only occasionally been able to make an impact in those cup games.
Indonesia has given many gems to the crown of badminton. Some of the gems are Susi Susanti, Icuk Sugiarto, Liem Swie King and Rudi Hartono. Currently they have Taufik Hidayat who is on his way to legendary status with his impressive attacking display of aggressive badminton.
One more feather in the cap of Indonesian badminton was the introduction of Sudirman cup in 1989. It is a world cup for mixed team event. The cup has a rich history.
By 1988, IBF, the world governing body for badminton had given approval to the idea of conducting a mixed world team championship.
Mr.Dick Sudirman was an excellent badminton player himself, serving IBF initially as counselor and later as Vice-president. He was also the founder of Indonesian Badminton foundation and served excellently as its president for 22 precious years.
The Badminton Association of Indonesia gave the suggestion of naming the cup in his honor and memory, keeping in mind the service he had done to badminton worldwide and in Indonesia. It was accepted and the first Sudirman cup competition was conducted in Copenhagen where Indonesia fittingly lifted the title.
It is to be noted that players don't even get a penny for participating in Sudirman cup. All they vie with each other is for their country's honor and international rankings.
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