Sukan adalah Muhibah

Quickly, while Malaysia is still in the Thomas Cup, I have to share my experience of my first live badminton match. Knowing that in most of the football matches I have watched live, I've always wished there was running commentary and instant replays, I was a little unsure what a live badminton match would be like. The crowd always seems a little crazy on TV and the court might be really far away, will i lose interest halfway?

Well, mum and I thought since the Thomas Cup is in town let's go watch it. Fate would have it that I've got stuff on during the Finals and the Quarters (kiasu watch the best mah, right?) and that may have been a fortunate turn of fate because our Malaysian team looks shaky on their feet at the moment, having lost just the day before our match to Japan. (Japan? Not quite the powerhouse, you would think).

Arriving at the stadium, we passed by the stalls selling food and badminton gear and ambled our way to our seats. Oh, and they gave us a free little Malaysian flag to wave too. Yay Malaysia! Of courseon the way we stocked up on snack food! Pizza, and a hot dog and some really really tasty chips! If you spot Ireland Potatoes anymore, do try their chips with wasabi mayonnaise! Good fat chips are hard to find. It's a bonus that you have seats and are able to enjoy your meal slowly.

The match started pretty on time with Germany and Japan squaring off directly in front of me and Malaysia vs. Denmark in the court next door (which was still relatively near - arguably better to have a bit of a side view). I really pity Germany and Japan because naturally most of the stadium was shouting for Malaysia and even when Chong Wei made his entrance to "Eye of the Tiger" (hahaha we will never tire of that song), the crowd was going crazy with screams of Malaysia Boleh and the whole time the German and Japanese players had to just suck it up, deal with it and continue playing. I suppose that is home country privilege. :P

Have to say that Chong Wei and the pairing of KKK-Tan pretty much breezed through their matches. But it was when it came to our 3rd game that stuff got pretty... haha.. what shall i say, worked up?

In particular i thought this instance was damned funny and particularly 1Malaysia. Our 2nd doubles team (Abdul Malik - Hoon) was playing fairly terribly at one point and they kept dropping really easy points. I mean, against tall Danish players what does one do... feed the shuttlecock really high up, right? (-_-")
I love that the guy sitting behind me shouted 'Ah macam tu la! Mereka pendek aje! Bagi tinggi tinggi mereka tak boleh dapat lah!" hehehe... the crowd was SO agitated by how we were losing easy points!
Then at one stage, a dude sitting quite a few rows behind started shouting "Malaysia! Main la! Bodoh! OOoOoiiII!!!Kick their f*cking ass!!" I glanced behind and saw a superly red-faced Chinese man at the edge of his seat and I think if i had looked closer, I could probably have spotted some veins popping out at his temple. Lo and behold though, after that scolding they actually scored! He kept quiet for the next service and our team lost points again.

Then the guy seated behind me stood up and turned to the angry man and shouted "Bos! Marah lagi bos! Marah lagi!"hahaha.. the whole crowd laughed along and seriously, i kid you not. He shouted again and they won the next few points.

That's teamwork for you! hahaha... There were also lots of heartening Malaysia Boleh chants and I really did feel some sense of camaraderie with all the people I was sitting with. Chatting with the makcik next to me the whole way and we even jaga each other's bags when going out to toilet, etc.

I have to say I have never felt more muhibah in Malaysia than while cheering on our team. The two chubby boys in front of us were soooo involved in the match you could one of the boys' frustration when we dropped shots. He'd flick his wrist and make a loud Tsk noise. And it was quite entertaining to see him praying when our chances of staying in the cup rested on the last few shots by our third singles player Hafiz.

Kudos to him by the way, he played excellently last night and I don't blame him. I think if he had lost there would have been chances of a crowd lynching!

There was also the kompang man decked out in his Malaysia flag outfit. From the stripey pants to the knitted jalur gemilang on his hat, he was really great at encouraging the crowd and players, and i appreciated that he knew when to keep quiet as the game started again.

Anyway, this has been a long play by play, i just wanted to convey that i think sport is such a great nation-building exercise and really, that is worth so much more than all the 1Malaysia ads/songs you could ever put up.

If it worked for South Africa, it can work for us.

Oh, and although i think China will massacre us in the quarters tomorrow,

MALAYSIA BOLEH!!