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Good signs for Indian badminton
It’s an epochal event in the annals of Indian Badminton. It’s for the first time that both Indian men and women shuttlers have won a premier badminton tournament at the same time. Kudos to the players Srikanth and Saina and not to forget Indian Badminton Coach Pullela Gopichand. Srikanth, ranked 13 at the moment punched above his weight and produced a performance of a lifetime. Beating Lin Dan, two-time Olympic champion, in his own den is an achievement which every badminton player might have dreamt of. Srikant dared to do it. It was indeed a praiseworthy performance.
It all started with Saina a few years ago. She ignited the spark winning premier titles and making the world take notice of her. Then the little known P.V. Sindhu popped in, with P. Kashyap following and making huge strides in men’s singles and now we have K. Srikanth. This portends a good sign for Indian badminton.
Increase reach of badminton in the country
However, the real work for the administrators of Badminton Association Of India (BAI) starts now. When India won the cricket world cup in 1983, new stars and players were born. A whole generation of players got inspired and the end result is evident for everyone to see. From then on, India has produced a whole bunch of world class cricketers and cricket has been the numero uno sport for decades now. That famous triumph of Indian Cricket team gave the game a facelift, an impetus which was well utilized by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). They commercialized the game and since then the game hasn’t looked back. It’s about time for the administrators of BAI to take a leaf out of BCCI’s book.
Every sport needs some heroes. In India barring cricket, we have had very few sporting icons in other sports. When we had them, little did we do anything about it. However, times have changed. India as a sporting nation is rising and badminton is growing through leaps and bounds. After Gopichand and Prakash Padukone, we now have a string of top class players who are bringing laurels to the nation. We need to carry the momentum and encourage kids to emulate Saina and Srikanth. Easier said than done. BAI has a very important role to play.
More academies should be opened
New indoor stadiums should be built so that every kid will start playing badminton. Indian Badminton League (IBL) which was started in 2013 needs to be commercialized like cricket. Badminton academies similar to Gopichand’s academy must be opened nationwide. Young talents should be scouted and trained by giving full scholarships. New coaches should be trained so that we can have not one, but hundred Gopichands.
The shuttle is now in the court of administrators of BAI. They just need to serve back. It is a very apt time to take badminton to great heights.
