A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

We are now back with the second post of the ‘Most memorable moments of Indian sports’ series. This time we look at Badminton. As you will see, India has performed at a very high level in Badminton as compared to a lot of other sports but somehow this racquet sport has never quite got its due in the country– and that is all the more surprising considering that badminton is very popular across the country and the rules are very easy to understand. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of television coverage and the low glam quotient of the players. Well, we will tackle that issue some other time. It is now time to savour the great moments. So here we go

He could have had the entire post to himself

• Prakash Padukone’s All –England Triumph of 1981 – This is undoubtedly the most memorable moment – India’s greatest player winning the biggest tournament in the world. And the manner in which he did it – simply outclassing the likes of Liem Swie King and Morten Frost on his way to the title makes this moment almost surreal. It’s a pity that we never get to see any video footage of this glorious chapter of Indian sport. This is the kind of stuff that we want to see on ‘India Glorious’. Any sports channels listening

Gopichand is on top of the world

• Pullela Gopichand’s All England Triumph of 2001 – Another equally outstanding achievement, although this one came like a bolt from the blue – but what a delightful shocker it was. India was hooked once Gopichand got to the quarters and it just kept getting better with every victory. The memory of flag waving Indian fans and Gopichand’s unbridled celebration is etched in memory – thanks to the live telecast that we got to see. It hurts when we remember the injuries which took a toll on his career after the All – England triumph. He could have given us many more memories.
• Prakash Padukone becoming World number one – Nice guys don’t always finish last – this one is a poster moment for ‘nice guys finishing first’. This was the culmination of a superlative run of form in 1980-81 which finally made Prakash the best player in the world. And it came during a highly competitive era in the sport – making this moment all the more worthy of a mention in this list. Since then no Indian, man or woman has been in the top ten of the world rankings. Padukone won a lot of other big events and this post could have easily become an anthology of Prakash’s greatest triumphs. But we decided to limit ourselves to the two biggest ones.

Before, we move onto the next two moments some perspective on the Thomas Cup, which is the competition among national teams. Till 1983-84 this was best of 9 format with 5 singles and 4 doubles. From 1984-85 it became a best of 5 format with 3 singles and 2 doubles. And unlike tennis’ Davis Cup where the same person plays two singles and you can win a tie with just a couple of good singles players, in badminton’s Thomas Cup one player can play only one singles and hence success requires greater depth – something which has been India’s undoing time and again, especially in the best of 9 days. India is always placed in one of the Asian groups which boast of all the mighty badminton nations except for Denmark. Therefore, just qualifying for the final round of eight nations is a huge achievement. The Thomas Cup is highly coveted by all the top nations and players – leading to a very high level of competition.

• The 1978-79 Thomas Cup run – after years of one man shows, Syed Modi joined hands with Prakash Padukone to give India its most power packed squad ever – and what an impact this team made. Along with the doubles specialist Uday Pawar, they stunned mighty Malaysia 5-4 to make the finals round. This is also India’s greatest victory in the history of the tournament. Unfortunately, their finals foray was derailed by the powerful Danes. Its unfortunate that Padukone and Modi never paired up during the early 80’s when both of them were at their peak. But in retrospect, Prakash’s decision to focus on his singles career gave us moments one and three.

Saina Nehwal had her eyes set high at the Olympics

• Saina Nehwal’s quarter-final appearance at the Beijing Olympics – This selection might surprise a few but it has a strong case. It does not involve a title triumph but gets in on the basis of Saina’s pre-quarter final victory over a Chinese player ranked fifth in the world – in front of a raucous Chinese crowd at the Beijing Olympics – thus becoming one of the few athletes to stop the Chinese juggernaut at these games. I will never forget this moment till Saina achieves something bigger than this and then will replace this moment with the new far bigger moment. Saina is a super talent and I am sure she will make me change this list soon.

There is also a unique connection among the individual moments on this list. Prakash Padukone mentored Pullela Gopichand who in turn is Saina Nehwal’s coach.

Other Notable moments

Prakash Nath’s finals appearance at the All-England Championships in 1947

India's first great badminton player

Nandu Natekar’s remarkable run in 1954 when he won three international tournaments on the trot and rose to world number 4. These were also the first international titles won by an Indian player

Dinesh Khanna winning the singles crown at the Asian Badminton Championships in 1965.

The 1951-52 side’s 6-3 victory over Denmark in the Thomas Cup. This Danish side had two All –England champions and both were beaten in this tie.

The 1987-88 side with an ageing Padukone and a fading Modi which made the Thomas Cup finals after beating Japan and Thailand 3-2

The finals appearance of the 1999-00 side lead by Gopichand and Abhinn Shyam Gupta – this was the last Indian side to play in the finals

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