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Sound of silence: Badminton resumes play with feeling of bleakness
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A worker wearing a face shield cleans a net to prevent the spread of COVID-19 ahead of a match at the Toyota Thailand Open badminton tournament in Bangkok, on Sunday. (AFP/Badminton Association of Thailand/Handout)
There was no sound of beating drums as traditionally heard in almost every badminton tournament held in Thailand.
The Impact Arena in Bangkok, where the 2020 Yonex Thailand Open was held from Jan. 12 to Sunday, was quiet -- even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard during the match.
The only applause during the tournament came from the coaches’ benches, where their encouragement for their protégés sounded like a huge effort to break the silence inside the stadium.
Players shouting after winning a point was probably the loudest sound throughout the tournament, but even the loudest screaming was not enough to uplift the desolate atmosphere.
The first of three tournaments in the Asian leg hosted by Thailand as 2021 calendar openers may well be a taste of the many upcoming badminton tournaments, at least until the COVID-19 pandemic is contained.
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has only held two events so far: the Danisa Denmark Open in October last year, and the Yonex Thailand Open.
Thailand will host two more tournaments this month, namely the Toyota Thailand Open and the 2020 BWF World Tour Finals. The latter event was pushed back from last year’s calendar.
