Badminton: What are they DOING there?

Last night, I went to watch a friend play in the inter-college badminton championships. She was playing in the team semis against HELP Institute, who thrashed them 4 games out of 5.

Now, before you say that her team was pathetic, consider this - HELP Institute's team have the following players - Wong Choon Hann. Lee Tsuen Seng. Law Pei Pei. Alvin Chew. All former or current national badminton players.

What the heck are they DOING there?

With all the hoo-haa about the 'failure' and 'short-comings' of the national badminton team, one would think that these players would be training even harder to make up for that 'failure', or at least playing in more international tournaments; instead of playing an inter-college badminton tourney with college kids who are probably only ONE TENTH of their standard. That's almost like asking Zidane or Ronaldo to skip one league match to go play for their local pub team in an inter-pub kickabout.

How do they expect to improve that way? One of the best ways to improve in a sport is to play with superior players who can teach you a lesson or two. What do they expect to learn from playing against a player who probably only touches a racquet once in three months, and can't even smash properly?

Granted, they may be obligated to play for their colleges because of the scholarships given to them, but it still seems a pointless waste of time, considering they are virtually guaranteed of winning without even shedding a drop of sweat, and might even get injured when a stray shuttlecock from a kampung player hits them in the eye.

Perhaps BAM needs to take a good hard look at what the PLAYERS are doing, before even questioning the training methods, or the coaches (which is ANOTHER pet peeve of mine).