Top players for Asia Cup badminton

The cream of Asian badminton will be on view at the Asia Cup men's badminton championship, which will be held in Singapore from May 2 to 6.

The $170,000 prize-money team event, which features the eight top Asian nations in the game, will see the likes of Olympic silver medallist Hendrawan, Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann, ranked 23rd in the world; Korea's Lee Hyun Il, ranked seventh; and India's All-England champion Pullela Gopichand batling it out for the winner's purse of $80,000, or $20,000 per player, which is higher than any individual prize currently available on the world calendar.

Indonesia are the reigning champions and are widely tipped to retain the trophy for the third consecutive occasion. China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and Malaysia are the other teams that will be looking to prevent them from completing the hat-trick.

The draw is scheduled for April 27.

The teams:

China: Chen Hong, Xiao Hui, Zhang Jun, Zhang Wei
Hong Kong: Tam Kai Chuen, Agus Hariyanto, Ng Wei, Ma Che Kong, Yau Kwun Yuen, Liu Kwok Wa, Albertus Susanto Njoto
India: Pullela Gopichand, Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Jaseel Ismail, Vincent Lobo
Indonesia: Hendrawan, Taufik Hidayat, Candra Wijaya, Sigit Budiarto
Japan: Takuya Katayama, Yuzo Kubota, Keita Masuda, Tadashi Otsuka, Hidetaka Yamada, Shinya Ohtsuka
Korea: Lee Hyun Il, Shon Seung Mo, Yoo Yong Sung, Lee Dong Soo, Chung Jae Sung
Malaysia: Wong Choon Hann, Ong Ewe Hock, Yong Hock Kin, Chan Chong Ming, Chew Choon Eng
Singapore: Indra Wijaya, Ronald Susilo, Patrick Lau, Aman Santosa, Kendrick Lee

Following the Singapore event, the Sudirman Cup (world mixed team championships) will be held in Seviile, Spain, between May 28 and June 2. It will be immediately followed by the individual World championships from June 3 to 10.

India is placed in Group 3B, with Hong Kong, Austria and Wales, for the Sudirman Cup.

Champions at the last three editions of the tournament, China are the top seeds and are fancied to make it four-in-a-row when they defend the Cup at Seville's San Pablo Stadium. They are drawn in Group 1A against Korea and Sweden.

In Group 1B, Denmark will be looking for a first ever European win in the event. Their first hurdles are Indonesia and England, newly promoted into this elite top group. Only the six teams in Group 1 have a shot at taking the coveted trophy home with them.

Malaysia, relegated to Group 2 after a disappointing show in 1999, will strive to become overall group winners and reclaim their place amongst the world's top six nations in time for the 2003 Sudirman Cup, which will be held in The Netherlands.

Although filled with renewed confidence thanks to Roslin Hashim's two consecutive Grand Prix wins in Switzerland and Japan, the Malaysian team may have to cope without him. Hashim has indicated that he would rather skip the Sudirman Cup to concentrate on his individual World championships campaign.

Sudirman Cup debutants Singapore are in Group 4 along with New Zealand, Poland and Iceland, while Jordan, also playing in their first-ever Sudirman Cup are in Group 8 with Gibraltar and Morocco.

The Sudirman Cup competition takes the form of round-robin group play in the opening stages, with teams then playing-off to determine an overall team world ranking. A total of 57 teams have entered this year, making this the second-highest ever entry for the tournament.

Only three nations have won this biennial event since its inauguration in 1989 -- Indonesia won the first event, Korea won in 1991 and 1993, and reigning champions China have taken the Sudirman Cup home on the last three occasions.

The Groupings for the Sudirman Cup:

Group 1 A: China, Korea, Sweden
Group 1 B: Denmark, Indonesia, England.
Group 2 A: Malaysia, Japan, Germany, Ukraine.
Group 2 B: Thailand, The Netherlands, Scotland, Chinese Taipei.
Group 3 A: Russia, Canada, Finland, Norway.
Group 3 B: India, Hong Kong, Austria, Wales.
Group 4 A: Iceland, Poland, New Zealand, Singapore.
Group 4 B: Bulgaria, Switzerland, USA, France.
Group 5 A: Belarus, Spain, Peru, Mauritius.
Group 5 B: Czech Republic, Belgium, Portugal, Israel.
Group 6 A: Slovenia, South Africa, Slovakia, Estonia
Group 6 B: Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Lithuania.
Group 7 A: Cyprus, Greece, Armenia, Greenland.
Group 7 B: Mexico, Italy, Luxembourg, Nigeria.
Group 8: Gibraltar, Jordan, Morocco.