Officials navigate brutal financial landscape

LONDON: Badminton is one of the few sports worldwide to have so far escaped the worst of the sponsorship meltdown, but leading figures know there is no room for complacency.

At a time when sponsors are fleeing the sporting landscape as the credit crunch bites ever deeper, sports equipment manufacturer Yonex announced a five-year extension to its long-standing sponsorship of the showpiece All England championships, the annual highlight of the sport in Britain. The new agreement runs to 2014, by which time the partnership will have lasted 31 years, a record for same-name company sponsorship in British sport.

Badminton England (BE) Chief Executive Adrian Christy told Reuters: "It's fantastic and demonstrates the strength of our relationship with Yonex."