BadZine was started in 2003, in France first, home of its two creators, Raphael Sachetat, reporter and photographer, and his friend Jean Francois Chauveau, the technical mind behind the websites. This website, which was meant to be just a fun way of giving information, soon became inescapable and a year later, cousin websites sprang up to add to the family.

The success couldn’t stop there and it was a whole team of correspondents who then decided to join Raphael and Jean Francois to create a website that would hopefully make a difference in the world of badminton.  Badzine International was under way… We believe that we are trustworthy in our way of treating the information as well as enjoying ourselves in original features which you will see on Badzine International (BZI). Enjoy!

The Team:

Raphael Sachetat – Chief Editor

Reporter, photographer, freelance and free of mind has been coming up with ideas on how to develop his favourite sport.  His target: reach as many people as he can with photos and articles to promote the game, and build a charity association which will benefit the notoriety of the websites he has created, which has been achieved in late 2009 with the birth of SOLIBAD – Badminton Without Borders. He believes badminton has to be taken as a professional sport and handled as such, keeping the fun and joyful spirit which surrounds this world. Raphael has been a professional reporter since 1998 and has contributed to many badminton-related magazines and newspapers as well as other magazines and associations (such as Amnesty International).

Jean Francois Chauveau – Webmaster

He is the man behind the tools. A computer engineer working in a bank in the south of France, Jeff spends most of his spare time working on developing websites for the badminton world. After creating his club’s website, he and Raphael created Badmintonphoto (www.badmintonphoto.net and www.badmintonwire.net for professionals) which became the official photo agency of the Badminton World Federation.  All Badzine websites were originally created by Jeff.

Don Hearn – Editor, based in Korea

Don hails from one of Canada’s tiny, rural pockets of badminton interest but after playing and loving the sport for many pre-Internet years with no connection to the badminton world at large, he moved to one of its true meccas. After years of following the local and international scene closely in Korea, Don joined the Badzine International team and has since provided annual coverage of badminton’s most lucrative tournament, the Korea Open and will continue to bring the action back to the badminton world whenever its best players are invited to this corner of Asia. Though employed to assist the students of one Korean university in their quest for command of a global language, Don hopes that Badzine can promote badminton to the place it deserves as a global sport.

Mark Phelan – Editor, based in Ireland

Mark lives in Rep of Ireland and outside of his day job of running two surveying firms he is a dedicated badminton fan and local player. Mark maintains and updates his local club blog and website on a daily basis and has a keen interest in following the fortunes on the lesser know players on the European and World badminton circuits. Mark has travelled to numerous International Badminton events over the past number of years and he now wishes to bring his love for the game and his views to the world audience through badzine.info. In particular, Mark will follow the fortunes of the lesser-known players and will focus on detailing the fortunes and the rise up the world rankings of the current world no. 45 men’s player Scott Evans from Ireland.

Manuel Roesler (Editor of Badzine Germany): German badminton expert in spite of his young age, he has coached youngsters and has dedicated his time and effort to the world of information, working for Badminton Austria as a Media Officer. He is also the editor and media agent of Peter Gade’s website.

Howard Kingston (Marketing): Howard spends his spare time helping Badzine in the advertising department. An analyst for a U.S.-based consulting firm, Howard believes Badzine to be the number one provider of everything badminton. Howard currently resides in the Philippines after spending time in China and Canada. Howard assists in the marketing of Badzine. Contact him at: advertisingbadzine@gmail.com

Contributors/Writers:

ASIA PACIFIC

Serla Rusli, Correspondent in Singapore

Starting out as an avid badminton fan, Serla has grown to love the role of a sports journalist that she has taken on since joining Badzine. To her, it has been two dreams coming true at the same time – becoming a part-time journalist as well as being closer to the professional badminton circuit. Serla is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Accountancy at Singapore Management University.

Pearlyn Kwang, Correspondent in Singapore

Pearlyn is from the sunny island of Singapore, which probably explains her warm and fun-loving personality. A part-time student and a full-time badminton fan, she hopes that one day she will be able to spread the love for badminton to her friends and ultimately, the world. She believes that Badzine is capable of bringing badminton a notch higher in the international sporting scene and she is thrilled to be part of all the action.

Eelyn Ooi, Correspondent in Malaysia

Ee Lyn is mostly known as the youngest member of the Badzine team. She thinks she is very lucky to have been spotted and brought into Badzine, thus started her exciting adventure at the age of 15. She loves writing and learning different kinds of languages. She believes that Badzine is currently a great badminton website which provides a lot of information on recent happenings in badminton. Being a great fan of the sport herself, she enjoys being part of Badzine. Her dream is to study journalism in Beijing and to become a successful journalist in the future.

Selina Ng, Correspondent in Malaysia

Currently a student living and studying in Malaysia, May Ying loves all kinds of sports under the sun but badminton is where her heart truly lies. She believes that badminton has the potential to become one of the best known sports in the world and she has joined Badzine to help achieve that dream with fellow Badziners.

Lee Suet Yan, Correspondent in Malaysia

An accounting major, Suet Yan has been playing badminton since age 10 and was a quarter-finalist in a state level competition.  These days, her love of  badminton centres mainly on the China team.   She closely follows all the latest news on the China badminton team and, in fact, joined us at Badzine in order to share more news about the China team with the world.  Having realized that there was too little news from the Chinese players’ perspective, she decided to take it upon herself to play the very valuable role of bridging the language barrier for Badzine readers.

Aaron Wong, Correspondent in Australia

Aaron Wong studied Economics and English. Every Sunday since 1997, he looks forward more than anything else to having a hit with the youngsters at his badminton club or looking after them at competitions. When quizzed on how to produce a backhand, Aaron quipped that it springs from the soul and is purely a matter of enjoyment. The editor of Badzine found this Australian lost and trying to find his way to the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur.

Miyuki Komiya, Correspondent in Japan

Miyuki has played badminton for more than 20 years. Badminton has given her a lot of precious memories as a player and a coach and she has always thought about what she can do for badminton. She has heard it is difficult for non-Japanese to find a place to play in Japan. So she started voluntarily helping foreigners 3 years ago. This activity gave her many chances to meet many badminton players including top players. She is working as a researcher and an application programmer for an analysis of Global Warming. After work, she takes care of her son. Days can be tough juggling both, but Miyuki wants to make people feel happy through all of her activities including Badzine!

Gaurav Gupta, Correspondent in India

A jack of a lot of trades, Gaurav has worked across a spectrum of roles with major apparel brands, music store chains to being part of the organising committee of the 2006 Doha Asian Games. A badminton enthusiast with deep rooted passion for the sport, Gaurav now tries to spend most of his free time at domestic and international badminton events. He believes that being with Badzine he will be able to contribute to the success of badminton in the exciting future years ahead. So watch out for him and Badzine at a court near you!

Gerald Jew Correspondent in Thailand

Gerald is one of the newest Badzine correspondents but has taken its job at heart with his first task during the Thailand Open. He takes care of his family in Bangkok and has been a badminton fan for many years, as a spectator and as a leisure player himself.

Ira Ratnati, Correspondent in Indonesia

Cheerful, energetic and unique are the best three words to describe Ira, who is studying international relations while also majoring in badmintology (but still can’t find a university that offers that major). She loves photography, yummy food and her motorcycle very much. She connects easily with others and sometimes enjoys being the center of attention, but other times she likes to be just by herself. She is more than ordinary but less than extraordinary. Some people have said that she is a little bit too masculine to be a girl, too guy to be a woman but someday she wants to be a mom. She has spent her whole life living in a small village in northern Bandung — the coolest place ever! This twenty-something girl constantly craves new experiences in life.

Dev S. Sukumar, Correspondent in India

Dev S Sukumar has been covering the badminton scene in India since the late 90s.  He is the author of 1980 All England winner Prakash Padukone’s biography. Titled Touch Play, it documents Padukone’s life and career, and provides an account of world badminton of the seventies and eighties.

Pendi Kwok, Correspondent in Indonesia

Pendi has been a badminton fanatic since 1994 when he watched Team Indonesia clinch the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup at the same time.  He spends his leisure time playing badminton with friends.  He is an entrepreneur/employer as well as an employee.   A few words that could describe Pendi’s character are: very friendly, very detailed, loves to laugh.

Adrian Kok , Correspondent in Malaysia

Working as a Business Analyst in a management consulting department for a Swiss company, he is extremely passionate about badminton.  Adrian lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, where he is also an avid badminton player.  He feels blessed with the opportunity to work with Badzine.

EUROPE

Tarek Hafi, Correspondent in France

Tarek speaks five different languages but is mostly fluent in badminton dialect. Currently in process of working on his Chinese/business degree after two years of French literature studies, this 20-year-old French man desperately wants to discover every corner in the world because he strongly thinks that someone’s culture is the most valuable thing in the world. His love for all kind of literature went with his love for writing after he entered the Badzine world at the age of 17. Totally fond of Asian culture, his dream of being a successful journalist afterwards is currently at its paroxysm. Since 2005, he’s been watching Badzine growing day by day and definitely wants to see Badzine as the most complete badminton magazine in the world, known by many and not just badminton’s netizens.

Elm Vandevorst, Correspondent in Belgium

Elm has been writing for the Flemish Badminton League for a couple of years now, and has gained good insight into badminton in Belgium.  This means that the most important event of the year is, of course, the Belgian International, held every year in September.

The Belgian International led to a growing interest for the European Badminton Circuit, which Elm tries to follow as much as possible. Last but not least among his interests are the ‘undervalued’ junior tournaments where the stars of tomorrow are already shining today.

Janusz Rudzinski, Correspondent in Poland

One of the badminton key persons at the University of Warsaw and an editor of a Polish website www.badmintonzone.pl, Janusz is an expert and commentator of badminton events on Polish television and other media. He has enjoyed first reading and later working with Badzine from the beginning. As the Badzine correspondent in Poland, Janusz has tried to strengthen its bridgehead in that burgeoning corner of the badminton world.

Gregory Chan, Correspondent in France

Gregory has been playing badminton for fun since he was a young boy back in Malaysia, but his love for the game intensified greatly when he moved to Germany in 2003 to pursue his engineering studies. It was only after an employment-motivated move to Paris that Gregory, formerly an avid reader and follower of badminton news through Badzine and numerous forums, decided to try his hand at writing for Badzine whenever he can as his way of giving back to the sport he’s loved so much.

NORTH AMERICA

Yves Lacroix, Photographer/Correspondent in Quebec

Based in Montreal, Yves is an archivist and photographer who has been part of the team since its infancy.  His work both behind the camera and behind the photo website is key to the success of Badzine.

Other Specialists

Official’s Whistle:  Michaela Bencova (BWF Certificated Umpire)
Coach’s Notebook:  Tjitte Weistra
Graphics: Pierre Jacob, graphic designer. In charge of banners/publicity; and Arnaud Enguilabert, graphic designer. He is behind the Badzine logo.