BADMINTON RULES CHANGES TO BE TRIED AT WORLD CUP
by Mike Grossman (from a report filed by YANG YANG Badminton Equipment

November 7, 1996 (New Shuttlenws) - The International Badminton Federation, the world body in charge of the rules of the sport of badminton, will be experimenting with two minor adjustments to the way this game is played.

These changes will be tried at the invitational World Cup tournament to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from December 11 to 15.

The first change involves setting, badminton's version of overtime or tie-breaker. At the World Cup, setting will be at 14-all in a game that usually goes to 15 points, instead of the current confusing situation where setting can be at 13-all or 14-all.

Currently, if a game is set at 13-all, the game is won by the player or pair that first scores 5 more points. If the game is set at 14-all, the game is won by the player or pair that first scores 3 more points. The contemplated change simplifies this by having only one situation for setting - 14-all.

In the women's singles game which usually goes to 11 points, setting will only occur at 10-all with the player to first score 2 more points winning the game.

The second change will see the introduction of a 90-second interval as the players change ends between the first and second games of a match. During this interval, the players may now receive coaching but must remain in the immediate area of the court. Currently, there is no interval at all between the first and second games, with players merely switching ends and then starting play.

This second change is intended to accomodate television, the spectators, as well as the players. Television broadcasters will have the time they need to throw in revenue-producing commnercials and the spectators will have some time to stretch, relax and run out to take care of any personal necessities without missing too much of the action.

Players should also benefit from the 90-second respite as well as from any tactical adjustments that the coaches can come up with.

Observers to the badminton scene feel that these relatively minor adjustments will get adopted sooner than the more radical scoring system change being tried at some European events. In the European experiments, matches are played on a best-of-five 9-point games, the so-called 5x9 scoring system. The same observers also feel that the adoption of these two changes could put a damper to the proposed 5x9 scoring system.