Badminton World Federation decides against introducing new scoring system

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has decided against adopting a new scoring system after several players and associations expressed their concern at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bangkok on 19 May 2018, Saturday.

In a bid to enhance the fan experience and the quality of the sport, which already has a large following in Asia, the BWF was considering amending the rules to make sets shorter. The proposal was to introduce a new scoring system that would see best-of-five 11-point sets instead of the current best of three 21-point sets.

However, the proposal did not receive the required two-thirds majority, with 129 votes for changing the scoring format while 123 votes went against the motion. With the total number of casted votes being 252, it needed 168 votes for the proposal to get the green signal.

Meanwhile, the other proposals for reducing on-court coaching and introducing timeouts were subsequently withdrawn. The new service height rule of 115 cm, though, will continue to be implemented.

Earlier, the new rule changes, especially the service rule and the new scoring system, were widely criticised by players and coaches alike. Viktor Axelsen, Kidambi Srikanth, Lin Dan, Sai Praneeth, PV Sindhu, Pullela Gopichand among others had all expressed their apprehension to the proposed changes.

The AGM was held on the eve of the Thoma and Uber Cup finals which will be held in Bangkok. With the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu being rested for the tournament India have a difficult task ahead of them. Among the other big stars who were not included in the squad were Ashwini Ponappa, Sikki Reddy, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

In their absence, the onus will be on the youngsters, Lakshya Sen, Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy, Vaishnavi Bhale, Sri Krishna Priya and Anura Prabhu. It will be interesting to see how they perform against the other nations who have sent their biggest stars for the tournament.