Badminton glory: Lessons from Srikanth’s achievements

On Thursday, April 12, Kidambi Srikanth crossed an important milestone in his career, bringing sporting glory to India as well. In the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, he replaced Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen to become the number 1 shuttler in the world. Srikanth’s tally rose to 76,895 points after he won the mixed double gold medal in the Gold Coast Games in Australia. He also moved into the quarter-finals of the Commonwealth Games on April 13.

Axelsen, on the other hand, lost 1660 points, slipping from 77,130 to 75,470 points. He couldn’t defend his title because he was injured and, therefore, benched from some important tournaments. As to Srikanth’s rise to world no. 1, no matter how these points are counted or, some would insinuate, managed, this is a huge breakthrough for Indian badminton. In the Men’s Singles rankings, Srikanth is the only Indian in the current top 10. How long will he retain the top spot in this fiercely competitive sport? That is hard to predict; he has had a series of injuries in the past from which he recovered remarkably well. Therefore, at 25, his prospects look bright.

It is not that we’ve lacked badminton greats. Prakash Padukone was one of the top players in the game, but we lacked a systematic, computerised world ranking system then. Earlier, in 2015, Saina Nehwal, became the no. 1 woman badminton player in world, an extraordinary achievement, but couldn’t retain her title for too long. Today, PV Sindhu is number 3 in the Women’s Singles rankings, no mean feat. The logical question is what do all these players have in common. The simple answer is Pullela Gopichand. These champions, and several more, are trained at his academy and coached by him. He is also India’s Chief National Coach of our badminton team.

Gopichand himself had an outstanding run as a badminton player, bagging the All England Open Badminton Championship title in 2001, a distinction that Padukone had attained before him. Gopichand was active roughly from 1997, winning the India Open badminton championship, till 2004 when he won the Asia Indian Satellite title. But an even bigger transition awaited him, when he turned coach from player. That choice was nothing short of momentous. Without much support, taking an enormous risk, Gopichand went on to become India’s greatest medal winner and sporting mentor. Can his success be replicated and extended to other sports?

The sad truth is that we are not a great sporting nation or culture. Apart from cricket, which hogs most of the money, media, and viewer’s attention, hardly any other sport gets national prominence. Now the marketing blitz behind the world’s favourite and most-watched game, football, is gradually showing its impact, with teams playing in national level leagues and tournaments. Other successes when it comes to television spectatorship include kabaddi and imported tennis, especially the big four grand slams of the world, Wimbledon, the French, US, and Australian Open tournaments. We’ve slipped badly when it comes to our erstwhile national sport, hockey, barely managing to keep our heads above the water. While we’ve also done well in shooting, wrestling, and, more recently, boxing at the international level, these sports unfortunately have little traction on television.

When it comes to the world’s greatest sporting extravaganza, the Olympic Games, India’s record has been nothing short of dismal. From 1900, when we first participated as a part of the British Empire, till date, we’ve only won a total of 28 medals, of which 9 have been gold, 7 silver, and 12 bronze. If we consider only the post-independence tally, the number is even lower, down to a pathetic 6 gold, 5 silver, and 12 bronze. For a country of 1.3 billion, surely that speaks volumes of our incapacity.

While reams of regret and analyses have been churned out to account for our failures the real issue is what can Gopichand and his academy teach us in terms of how to improve our standing? For one, outstanding leadership and discipline, as Gopichand exemplifies and embodies. Secondly, a well-crafted public-private partnership, with government agencies and private initiatives working in tandem to leverage both investments and outcomes. Finally, no politics in sports; no interference of any sort or nepotism, but an emphasis on pure excellence and results.

Srikanth has many more years ahead of him. But we need a 100 budding or would-be Srikanths and 1000 aspiring or wannabe Srikanths to maintain dominance even in a relatively small sport like badminton. Actually, we need at least 10 academies like Gopichand’s even in badminton. This requires a huge amount of strategic planning and, of course, funds. But it is the former more than the latter that is really lacking in India. To become a great sporting nation, we would need similarly to scale up and expand what Gopichand has accomplished in badminton to other sports as well.

The author is a poet and professor at JNU. Views expressed are personal.