It would be very unpleasant for me, but I'd blame no one but myself for behaving like an idiot and breaking the rules of the competition set out by the event organizers. This is called taking responsibility.
Just to be clear, I have no problem with the actual celebration of the win. E.g. like he did when he beat Wang Hao and ripped his shirt for the first time. And I fully expected ZJK to do something similar again, only more spectacular. However, destruction of property is where I personally have to draw a line.
What pains me most is that the final was a super-exciting match, one of the best between ML and ZJK as far I am concerned. And instead of having articles in mass media about ML's and ZJK's personalities and backgrounds, about how unbelievably athletic they are, how lightning-fast their reactions have to be to play at such speed, and how much tactics is involved in proper table tennis, all we end up with is stories with "epic fail" in the title that mention only the destruction of the barriers, the fine, and the spectator fights for the champion's shirt. Not one of these stories had a link to even a short form of the match, just the "celebration".
The mass media is not going to speak of Table Tennis personalities, Table Tennis athleticism, etc., anytime soon. Jike's destruction of two cardboard barriers didn't rob any positive press that was otherwise coming. In fact, his antics brought all kinds of press that would have otherwise not come at all.
The nice thing about the celebration was that it was real, unstaged emotion. Table Tennis and its popularity is directly related to the effort, ideas, and money being spent by the business people behind the sport. If the sport is to grow bigger, it will need to be presented better, with more business minded people in the sport. There is no greater example of this than the failure of its growth in the U.S. It is not the sport that has failed here, it is the business people behind the sport (or lack there-of) that have failed.
For some reason the main stream media loves to poke fun at Table Tennis here in the U.S., although that is starting to change because many celebrities here have started playing recreationally which is beginning to create an image that Table Tennis is "cool" to play.
The sport has come a long ways, but is still far from advanced in its thinking. Just to pick a simple example, why would we offer only one world singles championship every 2 years? Really? Tennis is genius in that it created 4 grand slams a year. The public values each one equal to a world championships, and Tennis athletes are defined by how many grand slams they win. Tennis athletes get an opportunity 4 times every year to make a name for themselves, and the sport sells 4 huge events a year for tv and sponsors.
One quick way to become a nothing, is to create a system for you and your athletes that runs your biggest event once every two years. Quite foolish, and dinosaur thinking by the ITTF.
"People have no idea what they could have here." -Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey (NBA)
That is a quote from an NBA GM in the U.S. who likes Table Tennis and who looks at our business model.
Table Tennis lacks top of the line, business minded people behind it. Those are the people that will propel it forward, not our World Cup final, which only die hard Table Tennis enthuisists care about, along with China where the sport is built from a business prospective to a respectable degree
