The Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) has reportedly hired an Indonesia national to train the Philippine national badminton team. Indra Setiawan, who has been around the country training players in private badminton clubs, has been tapped to prepare our national team for the coming South East Asian Games (SEAG).
While Indonesia is home to some of the world's top badminton players, among them 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the men's singles event Taufik Hidayat, I doubt the wisdom of this move. Unlike in basketball, where we also get foreign coaches for the PBA, it doesn't seem right to hire a foreign national whose country is one of the countries to beat when it comes to badminton. We don't know the extent of this Indra Setiawan's nationalism, but I would suppose he wouldn't want his country to be overtaken by us - although this may be a farfetched dream for now - in the field of badminton. He might not train our players to the highest level given the possible competition.
Besides, we got our own crop of good coaches in badminton like Errol Chan, never mind his ego, and Butch Oreta, who have devoted their lives in the development of the sport. I'm sure there are still others. What we need is support from the government or even the private sector to develop our players into top shuttlers. Instead of spending so much on foreign coaches (I heard this Setiawan guy will get around P100,000.00 monthly salary) why not do the same for our worthy kababayans?
By the way, I've read a thread on the badminton central forum that Setiawan did not even become a national player in Indonesia. The info may be wrong, but my opinion remains the same.
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