The One Liner

Why Winning Thomas Cup, Means a lot to Indians

A "Team" Sport

A team can’t survive the tournament with 100 percent team effort. Every team member has to contribute somehow; otherwise, winning this type of World Championship becomes tough to accomplish.

Immediately after the team was announced post trials, Kidambi Srikant and another strong singles player in the team HS Pranoy, brought the team together. They created a what’s app group, “We’ll bring it home.”

Kidambi Srikant does admit that winning Thomas Cup is never an easy job, and the results are purely based on pure resilience and mental strength.

Further, he said, “At an individual level that each teammate has personal ambitions but winning Thomas Cup as a team was essential, and that’s what they did.”

One of the significant learning as per Kadambi Srikant was, we got from the Thomas Cup is that today, many badminton players can still pursue this sport even by being part of doubles pair and making a name and place for themselves in Badminton.

However, the sports infrastructure is what India needs the most.

Sports Infrastructure That India needs

A sportsperson always needs two things, one is good sports infrastructure, second is good leadership, and third, some sponsorship.

India currently has the two most world-class badminton institutes, by Puleila Gopichand in Hyderabad and Prakash Padukone in Bangalore. And India’s most ambitious badminton players find this outstanding leadership in a coach such as Puleila Gopichand, Prakash Padukone, Vimal Kumar, etc. But we need more of them.

Because with excellent leadership, sports infrastructure, and required sponsorship, one can simply focus on gaining experience and can improve their game at world class level. As I said, there is still more to do for whole Badminton fraternity.

Way Ahead!

When India lifted the 1983 world cup, post that BCCI marketed Cricket so well that Cricket is currently the biggest sport in India, with a massive fan following. Many corporate sponsors the Indian Cricket. And this proved a gamechanger for the Indian Cricket Team. Indian Badminton team Winning this Thomas Cup is as good as winning World Cup for the Indian Cricket team.

If you see Men’s Badminton, the bench strength is still very strong, but there are no exceptional players except for Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu in the women’s Badminton. We need more women with strong abilities like Sania Nehwal and PV Sindhu.

Things have changed for sure; many universities and governments of India and various State Governments are sponsoring sports-person training requirements and expanses. But we still need to have more world-class institutes like Puleila Gopichand in Hyderabad and Prakash Padukone in Bangalore in various zones, so everybody gets proper exposure and opportunity for their world-class performance. It shouldn’t get restricted to only metros, but accessibility to world-class class sports should be made possible in India’s tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

Final Thoughts

In recent times, be it 1st Olympic Medal by an Athlete Neeraj Chopra, be it the Indian test cricket team winning at Gaba, Australia, be it in 2017 Women’s Cricket team just missing the World cup title to England, or even this Thomas Cup 2022, well, the list is long. This new India is indeed huge risk takers and determined about their sport.

And the way Indian Badminton Team performed with their phenomenal performance has definitely set the standards high. We want to continue to see them shine on the top of the Podium with National Flag being waved so high for the next 9-10 years.

As a fan, I know for most, the feeling is more like there is a women’s singles final, and how come PV Sindhu or Sania Nehwal didn’t win any medal for India.

But yes, some encouragement and great sponsorship can surely encourage their spirit and help them achieve great heights in sports and witness what we haven’t achieved till now.

Because there are still many goals to accomplish, and many youngsters are equally waiting for these kinds of great opportunities to explore.

Sources