Wednesday afternoon, and SportsDock is awash with the sounds of crowds cheering, blue shirts darting across the courts of Volleyball and Basketball.
But this year there will be something missing from the Wednesday line up.
The UEL men’s Badminton team have been forced to drop out of the BUCS League as they do not have enough players to field a team every week.
Graduates
There is no doubt that Badminton at UEL was going to struggle this year due to three of last year’s team graduating in the summer.
Ali Chin, Joshua Teoh and Marco Eng had all been mainstays in the team since 2015 so their departure was never going to be easy to deal with.
The truth of the matter is that recruitment hasn’t been good enough in recent years but it reflects a worrying trend that is haunting badminton right now in the U.K.
Olympic Legacy
Rewind back to two years ago when at the 2016 Rio Olympic games, Team GB’s Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis have just won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles event.
This was huge for Badminton in England, millions tuned in and supported Langridge and Ellis as they went toe to toe with some of the world’s best.
Just two months later and UK Sport had announced that they were completely cutting the funding for Badminton leading up to the 2020 Olympic games.
Badminton’s Shock
This was a disaster for professional Badminton in England. Seaking exclusively to Rising East, Ex England Ladies player Hayley Adcock summed up why it was such a bitter pill to swallow for Badminton England:
“The hardest thing for me about all of this is that Badminton England have had some remarkable results at the highest level over the last couple of years, where we have surpassed and hit every target set by UK Sport.”
England Star Toby Penty also shared his shock at the decision with Rising East:
“At the time it was a complete shock after winning a first Olympic medal outside of the mixed doubles category, no one expected the funding to be completely cut.
“The projection before was looking more likely that badminton would not win a medal before the Olympics so to come back with a medal was a big achievement.”
UK Sport have since rescinded their decision but their funding for the 2020 Olympics is a miserly £630,000. Compared with the funding for the Rio Olympics (£5.7 million) that is a decrease of 89%.
That is astonishing considering 2016 was the first medal GB had won outside of the mixed doubles category.
It’s better than no funding but it certainly indicates the direction in which Badminton in England is going.
It can be questioned what this has to do with badminton at UEL, but this all has a key part to play in why they no longer have a team.
Grassroots Problems
Without significant funding at the top level, there is a danger of a knock-on effect which could mean more and more university teams will go in the same direction.
As Hayley Adcock says, “The public perception of the sport is that it is a recreational activity played in village halls.”
So, clubs across the country will never fail to get people playing but they will all be playing more for fun rather than to take it as a serious sport.
The only way people will want to compete is if they see the top athletes competing and winning at the highest level and there is no way that will happen with such little funding.
Just For Fun
Courts are never empty at UEL but they are often full of people playing recreationally rather than to play for the team.
The nature of university life means that these players will never make the team because three years is simply not enough time to coach someone to become good enough to be in the team.
Also, it is questionable that UEL will invest time and money in developing a Badminton team when the national powers that be have decided that it doesn’t deserve funding for the Olympics.
The agenda set by UK Sport will arguably be followed by universities up and down the country as they want to compete in sports that are relevant, so it is no wonder Badminton is slipping lower and lower down the pecking order.
Bleak Future
It’s a sad state of affairs for Badminton and is no shock that Badminton clubs up and down the country are feeling the pinch.
Doubts will persist as to whether Badminton can thrive at UEL again against this overall backdrop with ongoing questions if the teams can become self-sustainable.
But for now there will be no smashes, drop shots or net shots down at SportsDock for the men’s team.
