British minister’s tennis serve in badminton game!

In his long and eventful career, Prakash Padukone must’ve seen some of the most extraordinary shots in badminton. He’d faced the jump-smash thunderbolts of Liem Swie King, the stylish backhands of Flemming Delfs, and the spin serve of Misbun Sidek. But it’s a good bet that even he would’ve been taken aback by what his doubles partner Jeremy Browne, UK Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, delivered on Monday during a promotional event in Bangalore. Preparing to serve, Bates tossed the shuttle high and swung an overhead, tennis-style serve that missed the shuttlecock, which landed tamely at his feet. It was the most unique service seen on the badminton courts of the K Raheja Stadium, where the Padukone Academy is based. If Padukone was amused, he didn’t show it.

Still, the event, organized by the British High Commission and Olympic Gold Quest, served its purpose: it got plenty of media coverage and added to the growing buzz around the Olympics. The programme for the day consisted of Padukone, the 1980 All England champion, and Vimal Kumar, former national chief coach, playing a game with Brown and Ian Felton, British Deputy High Commissioner in Bangalore. Vimal also conducted a short badminton clinic for children.

Neither Browne nor Felton appeared to be comfortable with the game, and the knockabout lasted ten minutes or so, and Browne missed several dollies served by Vimal Kumar, but sportingly laughed at himself.

Later, Browne nimbly fielded testy questions from the press, including potential firecrackers about the involvement of Dow Chemicals as a sponsor for the Olympic Games, the issue of racism in British football, and the threat of violence against Indian tourists at the Olympics. “We’re looking at establishing a lot of people-to-people connections between India and Britain,” he said. “We want to have a strong political relationship, and in other areas, such as education, sport, culture, science and tourism. Badminton is less high profile than tennis, but a lot of people in the UK play badminton in the clubs.”

Perhaps the most interesting bit about Browne’s talk was his announcement that Britain was ready for the Olympics, a half-year before the Games are due to start. “We are on schedule,” he said. “We could hold it tomorrow if required. We had a lot of planning meetings, and logistically it was very complicated. We’re going to host a lot of visitors, teams, support staff, 20,000 media… it’s not just about sport. It will be like a festival.”

Padukone said the British way of conducting events held good lessons for India. “I’ve had memorable days in the UK. There is a lot to learn from them. I won the All England in 1980, and was very impressed by the way they organize events like the All England and Wimbledon. I always keep that in mind while conducting events here. I know the Olympics will be organized well, unlike the Commonwealth Games which were held in India. I hope the Indian contingent does well.”