I enjoy badminton as a player, not as a spectator

I was off to the Singapore Indoor Stadium to watch this:







And because it was free seating, we reached the venue at around 12pm to "chope" the good seats.

I am not exactly a badminton enthusiast although I do participate as a player. But since there were free tickets, why not?

Big mistake. The event turned out to be nearly six hours of boredom plus little glimpses of excitement here and there.

To make things worse, I do not know the rules as well as I know about soccer and I had to turn to my sister (who plays for her school team) every now and then to ask silly questions like "Is that shot in or out?", "What did the linesman say?", "What is wrong with that shot? I thought it was ok?"

And when there is a doubles match, I need to keep intense concentration and listen real hard for the umpire's cue on whose server is it now or whether it is the first or second server.

This intense concentration soon waned down whenever a "less popular" match was staged. Btw, the highlight for most people was the men's singles final between Taufik Hidayat and Chen Hong, which the former won. I never had any idea how popular Taufik was to Singaporeans until now. In any case, I have seen Taufik play before and although he is a good player, but I can't stand him because he has such a hao lian look!

No matter how close the game is, badminton can never beat soccer in terms of excitement or intensity. True, some soccer games can be such a bore and detractors often wonder where on earth is the excitement with seeing 22 men chasing 1 pathetic soccer ball.

BUT, can a player who won 9 straight points to win his opponent after being 8 points down count as "one of the greatest combacks"? I heard this from a guy who was sitting behind me when that happened. He probably is not a soccer fan. I admit I am no soccer expert myself, but come on, surely the Liverpool vs AC Milan or Man Utd vs Bayern Munich Champions League finals should be considered as "great comebacks"? Badminton is much further down the excitement scale.

Each big final consists of 5 games - men's singles, women's singles, mixed doubles, women's doubles and men's doubles. 2 sets have to be played per game. If a winner can't be decided from the 2 games (i.e. the players draw), a third (and last) game would be played. My boredom got to this extent that I would be supporting the team/player that won the first set because I could not bear having to endure a third set. The "experts" call it a double. For a third set? Doesn't make much sense.

Hence I did not display any sense of allegiance or support for any particular team except in the men's singles. What for? To make matters worse, there were two games where the opponents were all from China. No kick at all. Boring.

We even left before the last game - the men's doubles between Indonesia and Denmark. It was already past 6 and the game was still undecided.

Give me soccer anytime. I have had enough of badminton. As a spectator.