Indonesia, once a dominant power in the sport, sees little chance of bringing home some titles from the All England badminton championships, local newspaper said Tuesday.
Indonesia's last All England champs were Sigit Budiarto and Chandra Wijaya in the men's doubles in 2003.
The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) has very few prospects seen as having any chance at upsetting the dominant Chinese and winning a title, said English daily The Jakarta Post.
Among those few players are men's doubles world champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan and mixed doubles world champions Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir.
"We are slow in finding new talent and grooming them early," two-time All England champion Hariyanto Arbi was quoted as saying.
"That's why we lack outstanding players now," said the 34-year-old shuttler-turned-businessman.
Meanwhile, 58-year-old Ade Chandra, also has won twice in the world's oldest badminton tournament, said that early training for younger shuttlers was needed to make them shuttlers.
"They (the association) should start grooming talented shuttlers from the time they are nine years old instead of the current policy of after 17 years old," said Chandra.
He said many parents now were reluctant to send their children to badminton clubs because they were concerned that badminton could not provide a good future.
"Life for many shuttlers is difficult after they retire because they don't have any other skills but playing badminton," he said.
He said even he preferred his children focus on their studies rather than join a badminton club.
He called on the association to retain former badminton stars to help coach young players across the country and to provide those former shuttlers decent salaries.
Many former prominent players -- including two-time All England men's doubles champion Rexy Mainaky and doubles specialist Tony Gunawann -- left Indonesia to coach or play abroad for more money.
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