Watching Saina Nehwal play P.V. Sindhu in the opening leg of the Indian Badminton League in Delhi was one of the sporting highlights for me last week. Sindhu’s bronze medal at the World Championships recently had given this contest a razor’s edge, made sharper by the 18-year-old’s eagerness to compete with Saina.
The tension on the court and the stands was palpable when the match began. Among the spectators was finance minister P. Chidambram who had put the worries of a rapidly falling rupee on the backburner to watch this contest. My theory is that politicians who are engaged in sports work better, but that’s another story.
As it turned out Saina, after a tight first game, played sublimely to win the much-touted contest in emphatic fashion and reiterate that she is still the queen of Indian badminton. For the moment, 18-year-old Sindhu must remain a contender (pretender would be a harsh description) to the throne.
The point of this piece, however, is not the Saina-Sindhu rivalry even if it acquires more momentum and spice in the coming weeks and months, but the richness of Indian badminton at the current time which must be both succoured and exploited sensibly.
In the past few years, Saina has wowed the badminton world with her talent and achievements. She has been the biggest challenge to the hegemony of the Chinese which seemed unassailable at the start of this decade. Her performances and personality have made her a star and spawned interest in the sport countrywide.
At the moment, two Indian players (Saina and Sindhu) are ranked in the top 10 in the world, which is unprecedented. The better news perhaps is that a flush of young talent is set to emulate these players, several of them from former All England champion P. Gopichand’s academy from where, incidentally, all three players mentioned above come.
I put Gopi in a spot when we did commentary together in Delhi by asking him who he thought between Saina and Sindhu would go further. “Saina’s already achieved a lot, Sindhu has the ability to achieve a great deal,’’ he replied. He had to be diplomatic, of course, but there was evident pride too in Gopi.
The key issue now is whether the IBL can trigger off mass popularity for badminton in the country. It’s a bold venture the results of which can only be known in a few years time. The IPL was a runaway success, but cricket is a sport apart in its appeal and commercial ramifications where India is concerned.
Nevertheless, there are obvious benefits that accrue as in the IPL. Young badminton players get a terrific platform to showcase their talent and have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best in the world (hopefully the Chinese and Indonesians will be seen in subsequent years). Not the least, they are getting paid handsomely. That’s as good a start as any.
A quick detour into cricket before I wind down this column. Kapil Dev has whipped up some excitement and controversy by not including any player from the 1983 World Cup winning squad in his best-ever Indian ODI side. Some might see this as odd. I don’t.
The team he has selected has players of impeccable credentials. The only dispute I have is that there is no Kapil Dev in Kapil Dev’s team!
For me, he remains the best Indian ODI player ever. As selector he perhaps couldn’t pick himself. I tick him in first, you choose the rest.