BIRMINGHAM,(England), Jan 17: Former world number one Peter Gade has launched a scathing attack on the new scoring system which is about to start on the world circuit.

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) recently decided to adopt point-per-rally 21-up scoring, which will be introduced soon after this week’s All-England Open championships here have finished.

The IBF believes this system will be easier to understand than the traditional hand-in hand-out 15-up scoring for all events except women’s singles (11-up), which has been the norm since organized badminton began more than a century ago.

But there appears to be plenty of dissent against 21-up scoring, and Gade, who will be trying to regain the All-England title this week, feels the same way.

“I don’t think the IBF will like the new system,” he asserted. “It is very clear to me that this is a political matter.

“Table tennis had this scoring for 50 years. They changed from this (to 11-up) with great success but those running badminton, they look at it, and say ‘we want your old system and we think it will do good’.

“I can’t see any reason for doing that. We had an opportunity to vote for a more intense and exciting game. It has been exciting only from about 10-all or 11-all and now, moving to 21, but it will become even worse.

“I think this is political, because Asia dismissed the five games to seven-up system and have regretted it, but won’t go back to it again. Five to seven is best for badminton and I really wish it would be part of the future.”

Gade is referring to is the political conflict within the IBF between Asia and its supporters and Europe and its supporters, which recently led to three different scoring systems being adopted within two years on the world circuit.

Although the five to seven experiment produced a faster, shorter, and more unpredictable version of the sport, it was not endorsed by the IBF’s annual meeting.

And when the IBF council adopted an unheard of combination of scoring - men’s singles and doubles to 15-up but any event involving a woman (women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles) to be played to 11-up - a bitter controversy developed.

It provoked dissent from more than 30 countries, causing an extraordinary general meeting which forced the IBF to back down, and brought the compromise of a return to traditional scoring.

Gade believes the imposition of the latest scoring system is a political reaction to that; the players will discuss their reaction to it at their annual meeting this week.

“But I don’t think the players can do anything about it,” the Dane said. “When we expressed our opinion to the IBF before, nothing happened. I don’t think the players’ opinions will matter.

“And when so many Asian players are dominated by associations and their governments it is almost impossible.”

“We can send signals to the media. And every time I am asked I will react in the same way. But the IBF is in control and as long as it’s like this, it’s very hard for the players to change anything.

Meanwhile a complaint from Denmark about the IBF-made draw for the All-England championships has caused the men’s doubles to be redrawn.

“If this draw was made by computer then one would expect a review of the programme,” said Finn Traerup, the Danish performance director. “But I would think this has been made by hand.

“There are too many glitches which makes it critical to get the review because the IBF website lacks information and we don’t know how people earn their ranking points any more.”—AFP