Badminton in state of limbo
Ramu Sharma

In many ways badminton has been a way of life of Indian sport from the early days of partition. Still to acquire an international profile the sport flourished in many centres with Punjab (Amritsar in the main), Delhi and Uttar Pradesh with Lucknow dominating the scene. It was a crowd-puller in these centres and players like Amrit Lal Dewan, his brother C.L.Madan, Devendra Nath, P.P.S.Chawla and others were all household names.

These were then joined by the wizard from Maharashtra, Nadu Natekar who switched over from tennis to enrich the world of badminton. This was in the late 50s and by mid 60s India was a name to reckon with in world badminton which was then a near monopoly of Malaysia with Thailand running close and Indonesia posing a big threat.

The entry of Suresh Goel and Dinesh Khanna in the late 60s helped ensure India’s status as a big time badminton country in the world, and the Nehru Tournament, evolved during this period all but revolutionised the sport in the country. The federation took this opportunity to widen the scope of the Nehru International Tournament and India went on to host the first Masters’ and then the Grand Prix competitions. And placing India on a firm footing in these competitions was Prakash Padukone, the man who created ripples in the international arena, winning the world championship and the All-England and guiding India’s fortunes in the Thomas Cup in company with Syed Modi, Devinder Ahuja and others.

All this makes for a nice study of history of the game in India. But what of the present? An administrative turmoil in the mid-90s followed by a brief flutter during which Gopichand hoisted the India flag in the All-England and once helped the country regain its rightful place in the main draw of the Thomas Cup has tended to become a memory all too soon. In fact Gopichand and others appears to have been caught on the wrong foot, unable to adjust to the new scoring system introduced with the game ending at seven. Fortunately for Gopichand and other Indians, the International Badminton Federation has reverted to the old system and there is now every possibility of Indian badminton being able to catch up with the rest of the world.

That will take time. For the present, like many other once popular sport, badminton appears to have drifted into a state of suspension. And one of the reasons for this state of limbo is the reported problems with the BPL-Prakash Academy in Bangalore. The BPL-financed academy has been affected by recession and is reported to have scaled down its operations, drastically slicing its overheads. As per reports the academy has moved players out of hired flats and what is more, asking the trainees to pay fees. This naturally appears to have hit players from outside of Bangalore who till now had everything looked after.

Though both Prakash Padukone, the inspiration behind the academy and BPL have denied scaling down operations, the fact does remain that quite a few of the recognised stars, including Gopichand and Aparna Popat, have stopped training there. Their reasons for withdrawing from the scene have nothing to do with the financial implications. They feel that the academy is meant more for beginners or middle level players trying to improve their game and not for those who want to hone out their weaknesses. They are not keen on the daily regimen of physical fitness schedules meant for the general lot of the trainees.

Whatever their reasons it would be a big blow if the BPL-Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy has to scale down operations because of financial crunch. This is the only hope for Indian badminton and other corporate sectors must join in to ensure that this academy continues to flourish. Indian badminton depends heavily on the success of this venture.

Meanwhile, the federation must do something about increasing badminton activity in the country. It could for instance revive the Nehru Tournament and even approach the Asian Badminton Confederation and the International Badminton Federation for restarting the Masters’ and Grand Prix. India has not had any regular international competition ever since these high profile tournaments wound up. As it is, there is not much of activity on the domestic front too.

An effort must be made to revive the spirit of the 50s and 60s.

Mercifully, the so called cricket World Cup has come to an end and the media hype along with advertisement blitzkrieg has subsided. It is now time for some sober reflection. How about renaming, albeit more appropriately, this cricket jamboree as a 12-nation or perhaps more aptly, a six-nation cricket tournament rather than the grandiose name ‘World Cup’ imperiously arrogated to itself by the ICC. Thankfully for us in India, sporting superpowers like the USA, Russia, Germany, China and Korea have not started playing cricket as yet. Otherwise the fate of our so called ‘superstars’ would be unimaginable.