India’s stock in international badminton is undoubtedly high. It is now regarded as one of the top nations sport wise as well as a major money spinner for the game.
The fact that India is hosting the most prestigious events, the Thomas and Uber cup finals here is an indication of India’s fast growing stature. As chief national coach Punella Gopichand told the media last month that it was almost impossible to predict that India would host such events in the foreseeable future, which is now a reality. It is not that things started happening all of a sudden. India was a major power with Prakash Padukone and the late Syed Modi. Then Gopichand carried the legacy of Trilok seth, Devinder MohanLal, Nandu Natekar and Dinesh Khanna, who all have made a splash on the international level.
In the period from(1950-1960s) India looked good enough to be counted among the top badminton nations and overseas. Players regularly played on the Indian circuit. India came close to reach the Thomas cup finals twice in the 1950s, due to the individual brilliance of single players. However, they lacked the depth, particularly in doubles, to seriously make a challenge for the cup. Overall they qualified for the cup eight times. But India’s Uber cup record is dismal as they have qualified for the final only thrice since the cup began in 1957. Badminton world federation(BWF) has started showing serious interest in India in the last five years or so and after passing each and every test it is now considered good enough to host major events on a regular basis.
It all started with Pune hosting the 2008 world junior championships, where Saina Nehewal announced her big time arrival by becoming the first Indian to win the cherished title and the next big event was the world championships in Hyderabad the following year. Then history was created by the doubles pair Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa who won the commonwealth games gold in 2010. The next year BWF awarded India with a three year super series contract, which has been extended till this year.The prestigious events like Thomas and Uber cups will yet again give India with an opportunity to showcase its organizational as well as player abilities in front of World’s best players and also a face off with important persons of BWF.
Also recently the Olympic bronze medal winner PV.Sindhu and world championship winner Saina Nehewal have inspired a lot of new and young players to the badminton arena who finds this sport as their passion. Though India has fared well in the women’s circuit but the picture did not look rosy as far as men are concerned which was far more of an impact when legendary players like Prakash Padukone as mentioned earlier ruled the arena. But the recent success of Kadambi Srikant winning the world championship and Parupalli Kashyap performing well at the international level has ushered in a new era of men’s badminton as well and breathed new energy in the game. Moreover with the introduction of PBL on the lines of IPL has attracted a lot of foreign players to India and the sponsorships from the corporate world have added to the financial enhancement of the sport. The picture of growth of Indian badminton does look rosy from here for the future.
