Major Victory in a Minor Game

Thomas Cup Champions! Indian shuttlers have created history, whitewashing the fourteen times Champion Indonesia 3-0 in a thrilling final. Is this the 1983 Cricket World Cup moment for Badminton? Badminton has unfortunately been the poor cousin of Tennis, a sport, which has a much larger following and with that comes the moolah. In India, we are a Cricket obsessed nation with all the other sports being 'also rans'. It may come as surprise to most of us that a short statured Nandu Natekar is amongst the "Greats of Thomas Cup", he was the first Indian to reach Quarter Finals in All England Badminton Championship and also the first to win International Tournament in 1956. Badminton caught our imagination when Prakash Padukone brought home the All England Champions Cup for the first time in India and went on to be World Number One. Today's generation would probably recognise him as actor Deepika Padukone's father. Syed Modi was close on his heels and won the Commonwealth Gold Medal in 1982, however he was murdered under mysterious circumstances in 1988.  But it was Pulella Gopichand who transformed the face of Indian Badminton with a single minded devotion to the sport. His principled stand in refusing to endorse a soft drink brand post his All England win won him many admirers, this author being one of them. His Badminton Academy has been like a factory regularly producing champions as though in an assembly line, be it Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, P Kashyap and so on. In fact, a major part of the credit for today's Thomas Cup success is also due to Gopichand, as he is the Chief Coach.

So that in nutshell is the story of Indian Badminton, but point to ponder is why is Badminton given a step motherly treatment in comparison to Cricket ? One may say it's a case of comparing apples and oranges, as one is a "Team" sport, the other is an individual one, but even amongst the "Individual" sports like Tennis, it is not considered glamorous enough. While Cricket was considered a gentleman's game, yes "considered", as it hardly is gentlemanly any longer. The concept of gentlemanly game was clearly a hangover from the colonial days of the Raj, when the Sahibs would amble onto the Cricket field by around 10 am in the morning and amuse themselves for an hour before taking a 15 minutes drinks break which will be followed by similar pretensions, where two or three of the 15 on field personnel are active at any one time. A sumptuous lunch break beckons, followed by similar fooling around when the Chhota Hazari would be presented for the Tea break and then after the last about an hour of the same, call it a day. The same activity was to be repeated over leisurely five days. In contrast a game of Hockey would be finished in just one session of Cricket, precisely 70 minutes of hectic activity. Be that as it may, my hunch is that sports where the West continued its dominance, received support from the media houses thus increasing its reach and popularity, Tennis, Soccer, Rugby and Basket Ball for example; the ones where the Orientals dominated had to rest content with the left over spoils, Badminton, Hockey, Table Tennis etc. Cricket was an exception as it was the Indian lucre which drives the popularity and status as a rich sport. 

 The Army has its own hierarchy of sports, it was obsessed with gender branding of sports, Badminton, Table Tennis were the preserve of the ladies, while troop games such as Hockey, Football, Volleyball, Basket Ball where troops participated in the sport with the officers were obviously preferred. Intermingling with the men on the sports field was a time tested formula for winning their trust and earning their respect. Tennis, Squash were considered officer like sports, but Badminton, TT were not so lucky. I am hopeful that this stupendous achievement is the harbinger for better days for the minor games and sports as they are referred to in the Army parlance. If it is some consolation to the enthusiasts, even Cricket is a Minor one with Soccer, Hockey, Boxing, Athletics being the major ones.