Thomas Cup

The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships have been conducted every two years since the 1982 tournament, amended from being conducted every three years since the first tournament held in 1948-1949.

The final phase of the tournament involves twelve teams competing at venues within the host nation. The final phase of the tournament is also often known as the Thomas & Uber Cup, because it is played concurrently with the women's championships, the Uber Cup (organized since 1956-1957), as a joint extravaganza held at the same general time and same venue beginning in 1984. However, this unification may end after the 2008 tournament, as the BWF has said that it is considering holding each event separately again beginning in 2010.

Of the twenty-five Thomas Cup tournaments held since 1948-1949, only three nations have won the title. Indonesia is the most successful team, having won the tournament thirteen times. The current cup holder, China, which did not begin to compete until the 1981-1982 series, follows Indonesia with seven titles, while Malaysia has won five titles. Thomas Cup and, to a lesser extent, Uber Cup are probably the world's "biggest" regularly held badminton events in terms of player and fan interest, trumping major tournaments for individual competitors such as the venerable All-England Championships, the BWF World Championships, and even the badminton competitions at the Olympic Games.

The Thomas Cup competition was the idea of Sir George Alan Thomas, a highly successful English badminton player of the early 1900's, who was inspired by tennis's Davis Cup, and football's (soccer's) World Cup first held in 1930. His idea was well received at the general meeting of the International Badminton Federation (now Badminton World Federation) in 1939.

source: wikipedia.org