Proposed new points system has badminton community unsure

The new points system will be up for a vote at the BWF's annual general meeting on May 22 and has been a long-time dream of the BWF president.

File photo. (Image credit: Twitter)
By Arnab Mukherji | Apr 8, 2021 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) will put a critical proposal to vote on its next annual general meeting on May 22. The proposal is an alteration to the current scoring system. The current best-of-three 21-point sets will be done away with. Instead, a new badminton points system of best-of-five 11-point sets will be introduced. It is a long-time dream of BWF President, Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen. It is a joint proposal from Badminton Indonesia and Badminton Maldives, and seconded by Badminton Asia, to “amend the Laws of Badminton relating to the Scoring System.” 

“The proposed scoring system change is part of my vision to make badminton more exciting, to reduce the length of matches and to increase the entertainment value for stakeholders and fans,” said Larsen, at the BWF headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. 

“The last time this topic was tabled, it did resonate with a significant section of our membership with a narrow verdict met. We concede the timing was not right back then. But I am pleased to see this being driven by the membership once more.” 

However, several players and coaches have been against the proposed badminton points system. 

THOSE OPPOSED

“Basically I am not at all in favour of the 11*5; the present 21*3 format is fine and has been accepted by both players and audience,” says Vimal Kumar, who runs badminton coaching at the Dravid Padukone Centre of Excellence in Bangalore. “Some older players who are past their prime are keen on introducing these new shorter formats. They are only good for the players who are close to retirement.” 

Kumar also said that emphasis should be on giving the players ideal playing conditions. However, he was against doing away with the old system. 

National coach Pullela Gopichand, who has been credited with producing world-class players like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, is in full agreement with Vimal. “The present system of 21*3 has been working fine, and the sport has grown steadily in the past few years,” he says. There are a lot of things that could be done, rather than change the scoring system.

“But if the BWF is forced to make the change in favour of a shortened game, then I would prefer their going for a 15*3 system on the existing point-per-rally format, rather than 11*5. Having said that, I am not privy to the scientific information that the BWF has, but I hope they have valid reasons for doing what they are doing. They are tinkering with the points format, something that is not at all ideal. There are so many other things that can be done for the good of the sport, rather than touch the scoring system at this point of time.”