Anton Subowo - JP/DON

The exodus of home players from the ongoing BCA Indonesia Open badminton championship is the latest alarm bell for the national badminton authority, signaling the urgency of rejuvenating its development program.

The secretary-general of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), Anton Subowo, attributed the disappointing performance to the poor mental shape of the players and pointed to the need to develop a program able to better motivate players.

'€œThe chances

are always available for us to take. It hinges on who is more prepared in the match. In prime condition against Lin Dan, we can win. Building mental toughness is crucial, particularly for those young players,'€ Anton said in an interview with The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the tournament at the Istora Senayan indoor stadium.

Chinese Lin Dan has become a nemesis for top Indonesian players. The retiring Taufik Hidayat beat him only three times in 16 meetings, while Sony Dwi Kuncoro trails 2-9 and Simon Santoso 1-10 to Lin, whose stellar career has been decorated with two Olympic golds and two Asian Games golds. He has also won five times in both the World Championship and the All England tournament.

However, his bid at the Indonesian Open crashed in the opening round at the hands of Tommy Sugiarto. Unfortunately, Tommy himself later dropped out of the tournament after losing to Marc Zwiebler.

The elimination of Tommy shifted Indonesia'€™s hopes to young stars Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. Beginning their challenges from the qualifying rounds, they managed to march to the quarter finals at the expense of bigger names, an achievement that instantly drew accolades from the media and home fans.

But they eventually could not survive either, with Jonatan bowing to defending champion Jan O Jorgensen and Anthony to Kento Momota.

In the women'€™s singles event, Maria Febi Kusumastuti and Lindaweni Fanetri battled their way through but their journey came to a halt in the quarter finals, with their Japanese opponents Yui Hashimoto and Thai Ratchanok Intanon proving more prepared to steal the show.

Anton warned against excessive exposure of the players'€™ achievement, which might ruin their games. '€œIt might make them big-headed,'€ said Anton, who is tournament director.

Jonatan'€™s failure to carry on with his winning momentum adds to doubts over his mental shape following his performance during this year'€™s Sudirman Cup.

'€œI saw him during the Sudirman Cup. Under intense pressure, he turned it around, playing like there was no tomorrow,'€ Anton said. In the badminton team championship in Dongguan, China, last month, Jonatan nipped Hsu Jen Hao in the rubber game to earn Indonesia a place in the quarter finals over Chinese Taipei.

In a bid to pump up motivation among the players, PBSI had world champion Carolina Marin of Spain spar with locals at Cipayung training center ahead of the Indonesian Open.

'€œI told Rexy [Mainaky, head of the Cipayung center] to attempt a breakthrough by inviting Marin. She is a model of discipline and strong will. She has a tough mentality,'€ Anton said.

Marin put soccer-mad Spain on the badminton map with her stunning win in Copenhagen last year. Two Indonesian women'€™s players have world championship titles: Verawaty Fajrin in 1980 and Susy Susanti in 1993.

Anton, who is also the president of the Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC), said he had pushed the implementation of an improved development system, with players treated like banking customers.

'€œWe must set up a program relevant to today'€™s youth. We cannot use the system as was used for Susy. The era has changed. In banking, we must know our customers. PBSI and coaches are employees who serve the players,'€ he said.

'€œWe are chefs. We must know their tastes,'€ he added.

In order to lift the country back to supremacy, the PBSI, according to Anton, has stepped up its campaign to build badminton courts across the country, cooperated with sponsors, urged clubs to be more active in honing young shuttlers and tightened standardization in recruiting trainees at Cipayung.

'€œWe began to implement the Vo Max test for players last year. We hope those at the training center are the best of the best. Once at Cipayung, they are ideally in shape to achieve. They will not be expelled. Cipayung is for achievement, while clubs are for talent development,'€ he said.

Failure to build a far-reaching development system, coupled with negligence in anticipating other countries'€™ progress, are also to blame for the grim situation.

'€œOther countries used to make foundations for one-storey buildings, while we prepared for three-storey buildings. Later we just added new floors, not aware that they had strengthened the foundations for 10-storey buildings. We must now think about laying the foundations for 20-storey buildings,'€ Anton said.

The Indonesian Open, which was first held in 1982, provides readily scrutinized parameters to check discouraging trends in national badminton compared with the global scene. The hosts may boast the most titles, but in the past ten years China has dominated, winning 21 out of 50 titles compared with Indonesia'€™s meager eight.

Last year, the hosts ended the tournament empty-handed. Home fans are wary this year could produce the same result.

Anton, whose mother is Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) president Rita Subowo, was philosophical about the grim prospect.

'€œIf we lose, we need to see who beat us and how we can learn from the defeat for evaluation. We have begun to lose to Chinese Taipei or Thailand, because they have learned our play while at the same time we forget to introspect,'€ he said.