Badminton

The origins of the game of badminton date back at least 2,000 years to the game
of battledore and shuttlecock played in ancient Greece, China, and India.
A very long history for one of the Olympics newest sports! Badminton took its
name from Badminton House in Gloucestershire, the ancestral home of the Duke of
Beaufort, where the sport was played in the last century. Gloucestershire is now the
base for the International Badminton Federation.
The IBF was formed in 1934 with nine members: Canada, Denmark, France,
Netherlands, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The United States
joined four years later. Membership increased steadily over the next few years with a
surge in new members after the Olympic Games debut at Barcelona.
The first big IBF tournament was the Thomas Cup (mens world team
championships) in 1948. Since then, the number of world events has increased to
seven, with the addition of the Uber Cup (ladies team), World Championships,
Sudirman Cup (mixed team), World Juniors, World Grand Prix Finals, and the World
Cup.
The World Cup invitational event started in 1981 and is organized by the
International Management Group (IMG). The World Cup series is due to end in 1997,
and the IBF is considering organizing exhibition matches featuring the worlds top
players to replace the World Cup.
For the recent Thomas and Uber Cups in Hong Kong, the sale of commercial and
television rights was a multimillion dollar contract. And its not just in Asia. In Europe

also, theres a growing number of companies bidding for rights. Television companies
worldwide are already buying exclusive rights to the 1997 World Championships to be
held in Glasgow, Scotland.
A turning point in badmintons growth was the $20 million tripartite contract in
1994 for sponsorship of the World Grand Prix Finals. Under the terms of the deal
between the IBF, IMG, and STAR TV, STAR injects the monies into the promotion and
development of badminton. In return, STAR gains total exclusivity for the exploitation of
the commercial and television rights to the WGP Finals. The deal was good for both
main parties, said David Shaw, IBFs executive director, who was brought into the
organization with a brief to grow the sport. We needed a strong partner in television,
and the broadcaster had identified badminton as a vehicle which would attract
audiences across Asia to its prime sports channel.
The next phase in the rise and rise of international badminton has been to retake
the USA. The U.S. was an early member of the IBF and initially one of the most
successful. When the Uber Cup was introduced in 1956, Americans won the first three
events. But then interest waned.
Badminton is a well liked and familiar sport in the USA but, predominantly, is
usually played as a fun game in the backyard or on the beach. We know that once
Americans see the other badmintoninternational badminton, the worlds fastest racket
sportthey will want to see and play more. The Atlanta Olympics started to raise the
sports profile in the U.S. The event was a sell-out and became one of the must-see
sports. Ex-President Jimmy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, Paul Newman, and Princess Anne

were among the celebrities who came to watch. David Broder of the Washington Post
reported seeing one of the supreme athletic spectacles of my life.
The year 1996 was a landmark in USA badminton. Its not only the Atlanta
Olympic Games that started to generate tremendous interest in the U.S. market. In
December 1995, the IBF introduced a new concept tournament in California, the Hong
Ta Shan Cup, a mens invitation tournament with the best players and big prize money.
There are now plans to add a womens event and to increase the prize money. The
Hong Ta Shan Group has gone on to sponsor the U.S. Open, increasing the prize
money to $200,000. This makes the event the most valuable World Grand Prix event in
the series and gives it six-star status.
The degree of change is increasing. Badmintons debut as an Olympic Games
sport has manifestly boosted interest internationally. The STAR TV agreement has
increased the sports coverage dramatically. Sponsors and television companies are
being attracted to a sport which gives them access to the Asian economies. And
spectators are increasingly attracted to the exciting mix of angles, tactics, touch,
reaction, and fitness that would exhaust a squash champion.

 Table Tennis
Like most other sports, table tennis had humble beginnings as a parlor game,
open to anyone with access to a table, paddle, and ball. The game began in the 1880s,
when lawn tennis players adapted their game to play indoors during the winter.
Ping-Pong is a trademark name for table tennis and associated equipment. The
name Ping-Pong was invented by the English firm J. Jaques and Son at the end of the
1800s and later trademarked in the United States by Parker Brothers, the board game
company.
The game quickly caught on, and as early as 1901, tournaments were being
conducted with over 300 participants. The Ping-Pong Association was formed but was
renamed The Table Tennis Association in 1922.

In 1902 a visiting Japanese university professor took the game back to Japan,
where he introduced it to university students. Shortly after, a British salesman, Edward
Shires, introduced it to the people of Vienna and Budapest, and the seeds were sown
for a sport that now enjoys popularity all over the world. In Britain, table tennis had also
begun to spread outside the distinctly middle-class confines of London, and leagues
sprang up in provincial towns as far apart as Sunderland and Plymouth. In 1922, an All
England Club was formed, which boasted such luminaries as Jack Hobbs the cricketer
and other famous names of the time from the world of sport. The Daily Mirror organized
and sponsored a nationwide tournament in which there were 40,000 competitors.
Table tennis was firmly on the map, and on April 24, 1927, the English Table
Tennis Association was born, under the chairmanship and direction of Ivor Montague,
son of Lord Ewatthling. He was not only to become the architect of modern-day table
tennis, but he also achieved critical acclaim as both a director and film producer. At the
time, The ETTA had a membership of 19 leagues but now has over 300, with around
75,000 registered players.
The first world championships were held in 1927 and were won by a Hungarian,
Dr. Jacobi. Apart from the famous Fred Perry redressing the balance for England in
1929, this was to be the start of an unprecedented run of success for the Hungarians,
who completely dominated the game throughout the thirties. Their team was led by the
legendary Victor Barna, whose inspiration and skill did so much to elevate the game to
sports status.

The 1950s saw the game turned upside down by the invention of the sponge or
sandwich rubber, this new material for bats, which, up until now, had been a relatively
simple affair with a universal thin covering of pimpled rubber.
Until this time, spin had played only a minor part in a game that had been
dominated by the defensive style of play. But these new bats or paddles, introduced by
the Japanese, had the capacity to move the ball around in an almost magical way. The
ITTF, the games governing body, was quick to legislate in a bid to control this new
development, seen in some quarters as equipping players with an unfair advantage. The
thickness of the sponge and rubber sandwich was controlled and remains so to this day.
But the nature of the game had been changed, establishing the fast attacking speed and
spin style of the modern game.
Today, the sport both in England and abroad is very well established and is
growing each year. The culmination of this has been its recognition as an Olympic
Games sport, being featured for the first time in the 1988 games in Seoul. Television
coverage of the mens singles final attracted an incredible worldwide audience of 2
billion. In China, the game is played by literally millions at work, in school, and in
community parks. Chinese top players are regarded as national heroes with pop star
statuses.

Technological Institute of the Philippines

363 P. Casal St. Quiapo Manila

HISTORY OF
BADMINTON AND
TABLE TENNIS

Submitted by: Raymark A. Mitra

Submitted to: Mrs. Rica