University of Sunderland’s Vincent Lam in action this season
“Badminton in Hong Kong is just like football in England”
Rather than the mud-soaked pastures where 22 men play on a crisp January morning, University of Sunderland’s Vincent Lam likens the buzz that fills millions every weekend to that of his homeland’s national sport.
716,316 people play badminton regularly in Hong Kong, a massive 10.1 per cent of a country with a population of little over seven million. In comparison just one per cent of people play badminton in England, 563,200 to be exact.
Football is four times more popular than badminton in England, but despite the increase less than five per cent play the game said to be our national sport.
Lam sits opposite me, not across a desk or in a sports hall, but in the back of a taxi en route to Sunderland’s match against Leeds, time for Lam to explain what badminton is like back home.
He says: “Badminton is really popular in Hong Kong I don’t even know why.
“A while ago the government promoted sports really heavily, there’s a campaign for people to do sports instead of just sitting in front of the TV and everybody just goes to find a sport and somehow the sports they found are usually badminton.
Vincent Lam (foreground) in action for Sunderland against Newcastle
“In Hong Kong its really cheap to just book,” Lam grins. “Sometimes it’s even free to just go to sports centres and just find a court and play.”
He explains: “It’s HK$20 (£2) [to book a court] and sometimes it’s free because when people book a court and they don’t turn up you can just get it for free and play for the whole hour.”
Lam has starred for the University team this season, winning seven of his singles matches. The team top BUCS Northern Division 3B at Christmas with a very real chance of promotion for the first time in the team’s recent history.
Lam beams: “If we won the league it would be a huge achievement and I don’t think the Uni badminton team has achieved anything higher than we have now, so I’m pretty proud of the team and I hope we can keep doing our best.”
But it hasn’t always been like this Lam explains, “I hated badminton at first.
“When I was really young I played against my brother and he has much longer arms than me and is much taller so he smashed really really hard just directly down and I just couldn’t play badminton with him and I would lose every single point against him.” Vincent doesn’t hesitate with the next question. Would you beat your brother now? “I think so” he says firmly with a hint of satisfaction.
Badminton has its stereotypes. A sport played to keep fit with the occasional matches in a village hall, the top echelons dominated by the Far East.
The stats don’t lie. Nine out the men’s world top ten come from Asia, no Englishman inside the world’s top 25, and no Men’s singles Olympic medallist, the pinnacle of the sport, has come from outside Asian since Dane, Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen in Atlanta 1996.
Lam says: “Playing in Hong Kong is more intense because when I train there it’s two or three days a week and its two hours per session while here it’s just one session of two hours.
“When I played in open tournaments in Hong Kong I couldn’t get past the second round because teenagers, a younger age than me, would seriously beat me up.
“It’s really depressing, if I was playing for the school team our school is in the first division which is really really high and our opponents are the best in Hong Kong, the good part about playing here is I could win.”
Despite the standard Lam is in no doubt in which country he prefers playing, “Hong Kong”. Just don’t expect Rajiv Ouseph’s name sung to the tune of the White Stripes in England any time soon. Who? Exactly.
North East Badminton 