Poser over scoring format and shocker as no women in high earners’ list

ALL eyes will be on two badminton tournaments at home - the Under-18 National Championships in Penang from April 23-27 and the Malaysian International Challenge in Ipoh from Aug 12-17.

Why? Because our juniors will be experimenting with a new badminton scoring format.

Early last week we were startled by a surprise announcement by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) that they would be yet again testing out another scoring format.

They want to make the game more engaging and interesting. Well, haven’t we heard that before!

The players will be put through a 3 x 15 rally scoring format with a 21-point cap.

It’s a best-of-three game, each played to 15 points with a mid-game interval at the eighth point. If the score reaches 14-14, a player must win by two points and it can run up to a maximum 21 points.

This test will run for six months from April to October and will also be experimented during selected Continental Championships and all the lower-grade tournaments like International Challenge, International Series and Future Series.

Surprisingly, the Asian Championships in April, which is a continental event, will not use the new format, and are planning to stick to the old. Are the Asian badminton community saying that they are not keen on this newer format?

Is this a format preferred by the Europeans?

The big question though is, do we need another change?

All change is uncomfortable but are all changes good?

Didn’t the world body beat their chest and declare that badminton was one of the sports that had high views during the last two Olympic Games – Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 ?

Have we not engaged more fans? And is not badminton interesting and keeping fans at the edge of their seats? Or are the world body threatened with the rise of other sports like pickleball and paddle?

BWF, however, justified it by saying that this change would be a perfect balance between the 5x11 tested before and 3x21 currently being used. The sport started with the traditional 3x15 several decades ago that uses service over, where our former legends like Eddy Choong, Tan Aik Huang, Datuk Punch Gunalan, Misbun Sidek, and Jalani-Razif Sidek used to thrive.

“BWF Council believe the 3 x 15 (rally scoring) system best balances the key criteria and principles as follows: more exciting points, including more ‘close’ matches; getting to more exciting points sooner; and shorter matches, better scheduling, keeping fan interest, player’s health and longevity,” read the world body’s statement released on Feb 3 on their website.

How can there be better scheduling and better health and longevity for players when the format is changed but the number of tournaments remain the same, with top players subjected to playing in compulsory tournaments?

Didn’t the players complain about the hectic schedule, mental health and injury worry? It’s a different story if the world body are paying millions to their players like tennis does.

Then, the players can afford to hire professionals and fitness experts to take care of their well being.

A decision on this scoring format will be made by the world body during the BWF Annual General Meeting in April 2026.

And if they do change to a newer version – two years of the four-year Olympic cycle will be wasted. Top players will have to scramble to adopt and adapt to the 3x15 format in just one year to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

While I’m quite hesitant with a change in the scoring format, I’m all for a change in the prize money, salary and endorsements paid to women athletes.

It was appalling to discover that there was not even one sportswoman in the top 100 based on the income earned by all athletes last season, according to sports industry news site Sportico.

The top five earners were footballer Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal (US$260mil), Golden State Warriors basketball guard Stephen Curry (US$153.8 mil), British boxer Tyson Fury (US$147mil), Inter Miami’s Argentina captain Lionel Messi (US$135 mil) and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (US$133.2 million).

Tennis player Coco Gauff was the top-earning female with a total of US$30.4 mil at the 101st position.

In Malaysia, though, both men and women athletes are not high-earners with probably only badminton and footballers getting more compared to the others.

Hopefully, a wider pool of athletes can earn big bucks through salaries, prize money and endorsements.

And let’s hope that the BWF will also look at ways to increase the prize money for the shuttlers on the world circuit than wasting their time or money in testing scoring formats.