When it happened the first time, the softspoken umpire implored the player to “please do not do that again”. When it happened the 5th time, the umpire did nothing. At that point, the player knew she was given a carte-blanche to not follow the rules of the sport.
That’s pretty much the experience from most badminton tournaments. Badminton umpires seem to be reluctant to, if you will, discipline players. And that’s a problem for the sport of badminton.
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Inconsistent umpiring is unacceptable
Let’s start at the beginning. Badminton is ruled by The Laws of Badminton. These rules and regulations are the same wherever BWF (Badminton World Federation) tournaments are played.
Umpires must know the rules by heart. Especially umpires qualified to referee badminton matches at the highest level. That said, in any given tournament you’ll see very different interpretations of the rules. Some umpires are quick to jump in if, for example, a player is slow to get ready to serve or receive the services – others are not.
If you’ve watched a few badminton matches, you’ll know that certain players have made “stalling for time” an art form. They “steal” time in between rallies.
No matter how obvious their antics are and how often they repeat them, many umpires don’t rule according to the Rule of Continous Play. Referees might caution players to not stall for time, but very rarely do they present the players with one of the penalty cards (see our article on yellow, red, and black penalty cards here).
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