Indian badminton is today not just about Saina Nehwal. The success of PV Sindhu at the 2013 World Championships has shown this. With the launch of the Indian Badminton league, Abhijeet Kulkarni looks at the future of the sport
In the run up to the 2013 World Championships, chief national coach Pullela Gopichand expressed confidence that India had the potential to come back from China with more than one medal. Such statements by Indian coaches are generally dismissed as an act of bravado or termed as wishful thinking and are seldom taken seriously. But in the last few years, Gopichand and his band of racquet wielders have not just forced every sports lover in the country to sit up and take notice but also create an air of expectation every time they take the court.
Gopichand’s prophecy of more than one medal did not come true, but the Indian contingent was just one step away from winning three medals and only a point away from ensuring a second podium finish at the World Championships. But P Kashyap could not convert the match point in the second game of his men’s singles quarterfinal against third seed Pengyu Du of China and Saina Nehwal was off-colour in her women’s single quarterfinal against Yeon ju Bae of Korea. The 18-year-old PV Sindhu, however, ensured that India did not return from the championship without a medal when she upset seventh seed Shixian Wang to reach the semifinals in her very first appearance in the championship.
Badminton fans across the country did celebrate the medal, but it was the disappointment that accompanied the failed attempts of Saina and Kashyap that underlined the growing stature of Indian badminton and the progress it has made in the last few years. Because in a country where odd upset victories are reasons to celebrate and participation in major sporting events in any sport other than cricket is considered as a big achievement even by their own supporters, the attitude towards the shuttlers is definitely changing thanks to the consistency in their performance on the international stage. India had to wait for over two decades for a certain Gopichand to bring back the All England crown to India after Prakash Padukone had wrested the coveted trophy in 1980 and no Indian had managed to reach the quarterfinals of the World Championships till 2009 — 26 years since Padukone’s bronze medal winning run in the 1983 edition at Copenhagen, Denmark.
The wait for another world championship medal ended with the women’s doubles bronze in 2011 when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa reached the semi-finals and Sindhu ensured that the wait for the third medal won’t go beyond the next edition of the championship earlier this month. What is all the more heartening is the fact that the medal tally has grown without the contribution of India’s undisputed shuttle queen Saina Nehwal. Though the 23-year-old has been the flag-bearer for the Indian contingent for the last six years, she is no more responsible for single-handedly shouldering the burden of expectations from over a billion Indians.
Since the emergence of Saina on the international stage in 2006, when she became the first Indian women to win a Category IV event in the Philippines, two Indian men’s shuttlers have won two Grand Prix Gold singles titles, the mixed doubles combination of Jwala Gutta and V Diju broke into the top-10 in the world, India’s women’s team qualified for the final of Uber Cup for the first time ever, India managed to win two individual gold, one individual bronze and a team silver in 2010 Commonwealth Games and currently have five men’s singles and two women’s singles players in top-50 in the world. And mind you, these are just a few major titles.
“We are no longer a country that is dependent on one player to keep the tri-colour flying. We have a battery of over 20-25 young players who are playing consistently at the junior and senior levels and that is a very positive sign,” says Gopichand. “Among the three quarterfinalists at this year’s world championship, Kashyap is the oldest at 25. Saina is 23 and Sindhu is just 18 and these three will be around for a long time. Then, we have the likes of K Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and others who are fast catching up,” he adds.
Wings of change
A lot of credit for this should go to Gopichand for the way he carried forward the good work done by Vimal Kumar in bringing Indian badminton to a stage from where it can dream of a take-off and transformed this bunch of talented youngsters into international stars after he took over as the national coach in 2006.
Even during his playing day, Gopichand believed that the Indians did not lack the skills or the talent to succeed at the world stage but it was the fitness levels or lack of it that pulled them down. Determined to change the scenario, the former All England champion muted the idea of year-long camps for shuttlers and even tried to stop Indian players participating in international tournaments if they did not attend the camp or were perceived as unfit. It also helped that the Indian Government was willing to pump in lot of money to aid the preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the Badminton Association of India could provide enough exposure trips to player training in the national camp.
“I feel the exposure trips helped the players mature a lot faster,” says nine-time national champion Aparna Popat when asked the progress made by the youngsters. “During our times, we would get to participate in a couple of tours and those too were always in big tournaments.”
Top doubles player Akshay Dewalkar seconds Aparna. “At the camp we get quality practice since there are many players at the same level. Here we work together as a unit and then we are getting a lot of exposure trips that boost our confidence since we are no longer afraid of the top players.”
Currently the top Indian players get to play at least 13-14 international tournaments a year and the Badminton Association of India (BAI) is also allowing these players to participate in tournaments on their own in order to boost their rankings.
“Being a player myself, I can understand the need for proper exposure and hence we are still working with the Government to provide these players as many exposure trips as possible,” says BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta, who has also started the policy of handing out cash rewards to players achieving milestones on the international stage.
BAI has now also put together a plan to scout talent from the under-13 level and selected players would then undergo training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore.
long way to go
However, there is a long way to go for India if it aims to become a superpower in world badminton and one major area of concern has been the lack of depth in the doubles categories. In all international mixed team events, doubles has a higher weightage to singles as there are three doubles events and two singles. Even in Thomas and Uber Cup, there are two doubles rubbers along with three singles and no team can afford to ignore doubles.
While India can boast of at least 10 juniors in men’s singles and five in women’s singles who are knocking on the doors of the senior national team, the situation in doubles is pretty dismal and it difficult to look beyond Jwala and Ashwini in women’s doubles and the men’s doubles combinations haven’t really set the international circuit on fire yet. One major reason behind India’s dismal showing in doubles has been the overall apathy of the administrators towards this discipline and lack of specialised doubles coaches. Das Gupta admits that doubles wasn’t on the priority list of the administrators for many years but they are trying to improve the situation. “The national training centre in lucknow will now be used exclusively to train the doubles players and we are bringing in specialised doubles coaches from Indonesia or Malaysia to work with these players.
“While we are providing better facilities and training to the top players, we are also starting a sensitisation programme for players and parents under the age of 15. It has been noticed that most players start taking doubles seriously only after they have failed to make a mark in singles. We want to change that,” he added.
The Association also needs to spread the game beyond a few select States and it is important that zonal academies are established across the country to identify and nurture talent. The Assam state association has already established a state-of-art centre in Guwahati and has roped in an Indonesian coach to identify talent in the Northeast, which have abundant of talent.
The introduction of the Indian Badminton league is also likely to increase corporate involvement in the sport and that could help establish professional academies in different part of the country. Hopefully, when the Indian team returns from the world championship next year, Gopichand’s dream of bringing back more than one medal becomes a reality.
The writer closely follows Indian badminton