India’s Badminton Heroes Deserve Better After Superb Thomas Cup Campaign

I had been meaning to speak to Chirag Shetty ever since India’s bronze medal-winning effort at the Thomas Cup. It was a very good performance, and the team deserved far more celebration than it has received. To blank Chinese Taipei, a team with higher-ranked players, was commendable. Yet, amid all the election hullabaloo and IPL coverage, badminton has been drowned out. We at RevSportz did do our best, and it was in continuation of that effort that I wanted to speak to Chirag, the most articulate of the current crop of players.

“To be honest, we did not expect anyone to come to the airport,” said Chirag. “None of us expected it. Even after we won the Thomas Cup in 2022, no one had come. It feels bad for sure. India is not a sporting nation. It is not as if we are winning medals every single day. So when we do, it is important that these medals are celebrated.”

Hard-hitting words – and he is right. Satwik and Chirag are the equivalent of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in badminton, and yet they are hardly given their due. They have an Asian Games gold, a Thomas Cup gold and bronze, a World Championship medal, and multiple Super Series titles under their belt, and yet they are pushed to express their disappointment in public. It reflects badly on all of us that our best athletes have to ask for the most basic recognition when we are gearing up to mount a strong Olympic bid.

I asked Chirag to put the significance of the Thomas Cup into context, and this is what he had to say: “It is right up there. If I have to tell you when I was at my happiest on the badminton court, it would be the Thomas Cup and the Asian Games wins. The 2022 Thomas Cup win was the 1983 moment for the sport, and yet it was not celebrated much in the country.”

So what is the way ahead for the sport? Will our players continue to feel frustrated, or is there a way out of this? I also feel much more can be done to market the sport better. For example, why should there be no media manager with the team when they are playing a tournament as important as the Thomas Cup? In cricket, there is always a media manager, and it is he or she who acts as a bridge between the team and the media. At the Thomas Cup, something should have been done involving the players and the media soon after the bronze medal win. A press interaction was eventually held three days later, by which time the news had lost momentum.

Chirag agreed with the suggestion. “Yes, the sport surely needs to be marketed better,” he said. “We have won almost everything there is to win. For future players, it is essential that we speak up and make ourselves heard.”

It was a very disturbing conversation – and, may I say, a serious eye-opener.

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