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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Sandbaggers thrive in tilts
By Mike T. Limpag
Sun.Star Correspondent
With the exponential rise of badminton, tournaments have sprouted left and right. And while results are published in the newspapers, what happens behind the scenes is sometimes left out.
Sandbagging, or playing in a skill category much lower than a player’s actual skills, is reportedly common practice, which assures sandbaggers of winning because they will be bracketed with players with inferior skills.
“I’m pointing this out so this can be corrected. This is not good for the sport,” Bong Domingo, one of the players who have complained of the unsportsmanlike practice, told Sun.Star Cebu.
In the Adidas Badminton Challenge over the weekend, Domingo and his 16-year-old partner were classified in Class D and played against another pair that in a previous tournament was classified in Class C.
Disgusted
“Even the pair themselves admitted that they were Class C players,” Domingo said. “And it was not the only complaint; Class A players from Manila played in lower categories during the tournament.”
Domingo said many out-of-town players were disgusted with the way the leveling was handled told organizers “they will never join Cebu tournaments again if it is ran the same way.”
Conduct of leveling
Organizers usually divide their tournaments into four separate competitions – Class A, B, C and D – with the best players grouped in Class A. To determine which skill level a player belongs organizers hold a leveling event before actual competitions.
“I love the sport,” Domingo said. “They should hold proper leveling.”
For his part, Cebu Badminton Association (CBA) president Ricky Ballesteros admitted they usually encounter problems during leveling.
“Other players will deliberately play bad during leveling,” Ballesteros said.
In a leveling session, players’ skills are gauged by how they move in the court and by their form.
“You can tell with one’s form how good a player is,” Ballesteros said.
Ballesteros said the standard used by the people conducting the leveling also comes into play. In the Adidas tournament, the leveling was conducted by the Philippine Badminton Association.
Careful
“Sometimes, for them (PBC officials) our Class C player is only good for Class D,” Ballesteros said.
Ballesteros said the CBA will be more careful during the leveling so as not to turn off participants. He said though that tournaments conducted by the CBA are relatively safe from sandbagging.
“We know the players and their abilities so we know where to put them.”
(August 10, 2005 issue)
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