Foul!

One can construe this as a "big boost". But others might say this as an act of desperation. The Star had today reported former top Chinese diver Huang Qiang obtained the go-ahead to represent his adopted country for the London Olympics. Many believe the nation has a shot of winning its first Olympic gold medal this year. Huang, 30, is a coach and settled down with a Malaysian two years ago. We have had "foreign" talents in the past - in the form of China-born walker Yuan Yufang and Russian shooter Irina Maharani representing the country. Singapore welcomes foreign talents and offer them citizenship as seen in their table tennis and badminton players. But not too long ago deputy Sports Minister Gan Ping Siew said this on his twitter ( pic ); We welcome foreign sports talents to participate in our sports, but not at the expense of offering citizenship to represent our country. HD says: Looking forward to Chinese New Year!!!!

If all nations in world recruit players from other nations to represent them,then it defeats the purpose of sportsmanship and showmanship. Take Singapore as example. I have been to 4 SEA Games, 2 Asian Games, 1 Olympics..when Singapore did well in table tennis using 'China' players, where were the cheering support shown by their fans/citizens? Limited or none! U can spend money, but will it uplift ur citizens taste for glory? I received that SMS from Lee Hui Seng. And I thank him for sharing it with me. Apparently the same text was seen on his Facebook wall and it created quite a stir. However, we also have 'imports' within us - Yuan Yufang and Irina Maharani ( pic ) to name a few. For the record, Singapore's defender Daniel Bennett was born in England but lived in Singapore since the age of two. Does that make him more British or Singaporean? But what say you? HD says: Hmm...