Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson celebrate winning during the 2006 Yonex All England Open Championship in January.
As the pool draw for the Mixed Team competition at Melbourne 2006 was announced, Australian representatives and European champions have urged Australian to get behind their great sport.
Olympian and two-time Commonwealth Games representative Kellie Lucas has called on the Australian public to participate in the excitement Badminton has to offer.
"In a lot of countries overseas Badminton is their number one sport, it's like Cricket or Football," Lucas said.
It's all in the frantic speed of the game.
"I don't really think the television does justice to Badminton at all because it doesn't really show up how quick the speed is. The highest recorded smash is 322km per hour, which compared to tennis is 100km quicker."
The English duo of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, silver medallists at the Athens Olympics and this year's winners of the China Open, the Copenhagen Masters and the Swiss Open will no doubt go a long way in raising the identity and popularity of Badminton in Australia.
Following their thrilling Olympics tussles in Athens, the popularity of the sport soared in their home nation.
And they have vowed to atone for their 2002 Games quarter-final loss by winning mixed doubles Badminton gold in Melbourne.
Six Commonwealth gold medals - for the men’s and women’s singles; men’s and women’s doubles; mixed doubles and the mixed team events – will all be on offer as players take to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre courts from 16 – 26 March.
The Badminton Mixed Team pool draws are: Pool A: Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Fiji; Pool B: New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, Kenya, Uganda; Pool C: Singapore, Canada, Mauritius, South Africa, Jersey; Pool D: England, India, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago
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