Looking Back - Thomas Cup '92 (Part 2)

When I last left you, Malaysians all around the world were heartbroken by the lost of their All England Champions Razif and Jalani Sidek. Considered a 'safe point', for some reason, the world's best defensive pair lost tamely in the third set.

Foo Kok Keong then marched out into the court to face Olympic Champion Allan Budi Kusuma, the future husband of Indonesian ace Susi Susanti. Ranked number 10 in the world, Foo has never managed to beat Allan, who was ranked much higher than Foo. With the support of the screaming home crowd, he swept Allan away and clinched the first set easily 15-6. Inspired by Foo's determination and first set win, the crowd shouted, screamed, shreiked, and screeched for Foo while booing loudly at Allan. Even the usually confident Indonesian supporters at Stadium Negara were shocked and scared by the Malaysians. Foo, at 29 years of age, dived and ran and ran, refusing to give up the second set although trailing 11-6 at one point. Allan failed to close up, and Foo proceeded to clinch the game in 2 sets. Foo not only delivered the 'winning point' for Malaysia, he paved the way for the dive return; in the second set, he dived on average once every rally. At this point, no household of Malaysia was asleep, although it was about midnight. Even those who had no interest in badminton were woken up by their neighbours, and proceeded to drag themselves out from bed to watch the deciding game.

Cheah Soon Kit and Soo Beng Kiang, Malaysia's secret weapon, marched out onto court accompanied by the loud cheerings of the Malaysian fans. On the other end of the court was Rexy Manaiky and Ricky Subagja, future Olympic Champions. Cheah and Soo were an excellent pair, but they did not get along with each other. The Malaysians won the first set, while Rexy and Ricky managed to get the second set. The rubber game was neck to neck until the Malaysians managed to pull away. 2 points away from the Thomas Cup, all Malaysians everywhere were on their feet vilifying their fingernails. And then Rexy and Ricky got back the service. However, Cheah and Soo never allowed Rexy and Ricky to fight back, snatching back the service and getting a match point. Cheah Soon Kit held the serve that captivated the nation. 20 million Malaysians from all corner of the world were looking at that one shuttlecock held by Cheah. And boy did he serve it well. The shuttlecock wanted to skim the net, but decided against doing so in the last minute. Caught by suprise, Ricky proceeded to lift the shuttle. The lift was short, and Soo delivered the death blow right into Rexy's body. Checkmate.

The whole stadium erupted with frenzy as the whole Malaysian badminton team flooded the centre court. Cheah and Soo were hugged, and Mrs. Mahathir and the Yang Dipertuan Agong came personally to congratulate them. The celebration took place throughout the 5th match, between Kwan Yoke Meng and Joko Suprianto. Unsuprisingly, Kwan lost tamely, and once again, the Thomas Cup returned to the nation that first won it 90 years ago. That silver cup, after 25 years, finally returned to this Publish Postsmall nation near the equator. Finally, the Thomas Cup is Malaysia's.

Well, hopefully Malaysia can prevail once again next year when they set out to campaign for the Thomas Cup, the Cup that has eluded us for 16 years. Can we do it?

ps: This is out of topic, for those who are concerned about the ISA detentions of the HINDRAF leaders, there is a petition here

Looking Back - Thomas Cup '92 (Part 1)

Malaysia hopes to do well in next year's Thomas Cup competition, and I thought it would be appropriate to have a look at the 1992's Thomas Cup, the last time Malaysia managed to clinch the trophy. The setting for the finals was in Stadium Negara, with a 15,000 strong crowd, the majority of them being Malaysians. The setting was perfect: Malaysia had disposed of China in the semifinals, and now faced arch rivals Indonesia in the finals. Malaysia had managed to beat Indonesia in the last 2 Thomas Cup editions (1990 semifinals, 1988 semifinals), but fell to China in the finals both times. Now with China swept aside (The Great Wall Cracks - The Star Newspaper Headlines), can Malaysia repeat the feat and beat a more credible Indonesian team?


Malaysia had hoped to win 3 points from the 2 doubles and the first singles. The other 2 singles, Foo Kok Keong (2nd singles) and Kwan Yoke Meng (3rd singles) had no hope against Olympic Champion Allan Budi Kusuma and Joko Suprianto respectively. Our 'jaguh kampung' on the other hand, Rashid Sidek had a slim chance against 7 time All England Champion Ardy Wiranata while our 2 doubles pairs have consistently beaten their Indonesian compatriots before. Brothers Razif and Jalani Sidek have beaten Eddy Hartono and Gunawan many times before. In fact, the first doubles was viewed as a 'guaranteed point'. Cheah Soon Kit and Soo Beng Kiang on the other hand, had a fighting chance against future Olympic Champions Rexy Manaiky and Ricky Subagja.

The stage was set. Rashid Sidek entered the stadium with the roars of the stadium, while Ardy was booed by the boisterous Malaysian crowd. Prominent among the audience were Mrs. (now Tun) Mahathir and the Yang Dipertuan Agong. While witnessing such hype surrounding this, we all thought - What if Malaysia lost? Oh the shame!



Rashid began his game methodically, and managed to pull off the first game 15-11. However, in the second game, Ardy showed his patience and managed to regain a set at 10-15. So we go to a rubber. In the third set, Ardy started to make some uncharacteristically simple mistakes, and allowed Rashid to take the third set 15-8. Everyone wanted Rashid to pull it off, but somehow, we were prepared for him to lose. But he won. And the whole nation held its breath while being bombarded by the constant commentaries of Hasbullah Awang on RTM2. 1-0 to Malaysia. And our hopes began to rise.




Then disaster struck. Our All England Champions Razif and Jalani Sidek, the best defensive pair in the world, who have also managed to beat Eddy Hartono and Gunawan countless times before, lost the first set in an unconvincing fashion. Although they managed to pull back the second set, but in the third set, their tactics fell apart. They started attacking more, while their usual style was to defend. Hartono and Gunawan saw the chance, and calmly destroyed Razif and Jalani 3-15. Their hopes were dashed, together with all the hopes of millions of Malaysian glued to their televisions. Malaysia's plan had backfired. Indonesia was in the driving seat now. There was no way Foo Kok Keong or Kwan Yoke Meng could pull off a win to accompany Cheah Soon Kit's and Soong Beng Kiang's.

1-1. Advantage Indonesia. Uh oh.

Stay tuned to The Badminton Blog for part 2 of the Thomas Cup '92 analysis!

Hong Kong Open Predictions

It would seem that The Badminton Blog has had a lack of updates for the past few days. I do apologize to my readers who have stuck with me. I have not forgotten you, I am merely working on another project that will make The Badminton Blog bigger and better, with more writers and opinions.

Anyway, on to this afternoon's predictions:

Mens Singles
Lee Chong Wei vs. Lin Dan
Although Lee defeated gritty Dane Jonassen, his performance was no as impressive as always. Lin Dan, who only needed 22 minutes to win in a half finished game against compatriot Chen Jin, would be obviously fresher and sharper. However, Lin has not played the new Lee before. The new Lee minimizes jump smashes and instead plays a patient game. Its hard to say whether this would work against Lin, and it will be indeed an interesting encounter this afternoon.

Tony Gunawan/Candra Wijaya vs. Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan
Tony and Candra are resurrected legends, who downed first seeds and world number 1 Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong in an impressive fashion. Their defense has become as solid as Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah's and they appear to be sharper than ever. Although Markis and Hendra are credible opponents; they are world champions and third seeds, I think the old legends Tony and Candra will win their second Super Series title todaay.

Zheng Bo/Gao Ling vs. Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir
A rematch of the world championships and Japan Open finals. First seeds versus second seeds. Zheng and Gao are obviously the favorites going into this match, fresh from their walkover against Xie/Zhang. However, the two time and reigning World Champions Widianto and Natsir are one of the few pairs this year that have beaten Zheng and Gao. However, I remained unconvinced of Widianto and Natsir's performance in this tournament, and a fresher Gao and Zheng should prevail in 3 sets.

Stay tuned for more updates on the opening of the new The Badminton Blog