Former Indian cricketer and captain Sunil Gavaskar gave a surprise answer on his pick of finest sportsperson of India by stating that badminton player Prakash Padukone is the ‘best sportsman India has ever produced’. Side lining some of the greatest players like Sachin Tendulkar, two time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra, MS Dhoni, Abhinav Bindra, who is also the first ever individual Indian gold medallist. More recently, in his Sportstar column, Gavaskar described Padukone as a phenomenal shuttler and a true sportsman and went on to detail his successes during the period when badminton was dominated by formidable players from Denmark and China.
He said, “In my humble opinion, and with the greatest respect to all other legends and champions from other sports, Prakash Padukone is the finest sportsperson that India has produced. It’s not just his incredible skill with which he conquered the badminton world time and again, but also his demeanour on and off the court that makes him so special in my eyes.”
Padukone rose to fame in 1980 when she became the first Indian to win the All England Championships and was ranked the world’s number one player the same year. His other achievements include a bronze medal at the 1983 IWF World Championship and gold medal at the 1981 IWF World Cup, besides a gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games.
Padukone remains active in the sport to date as the current coach of the Indian team and most recently helped Lakshya Sen to be the first Indian male shuttler to reach an Olympic semi-final. The support Padukone got from Gavaskar is part of a more recent acknowledgment of other athletes from different sporting disciplines in India, shifting the focus from cricket to other sports.
This perspective encourages the fans and the lovers of sports to embrace the talents that have come out of this country, thus making the world understand that it is not only in individual games that one can see talent. As the 2024 Paris Olympics are still a few years away, Padukone’s contribution will always be remembered by the Indian sporting community.
