Behind India’s Thomas Cup success
A FEW years ago, my dad who has since passed away said that India would win the Thomas Cup soon. I laughed hysterically when I heard that.
How on earth would it be possible for a country with only Prakash Padukone (All England Champion 1980) and Pullela Gopichand (All England Champion 2001) as notable former players to beat powerhouses such as China, Indonesia, Denmark, Japan and Malaysia in this prestigious team event?
Boy, I could never have been so wrong in my entire life! On Sunday, India created history by winning the Thomas Cup for the first time ever, and in their maiden final too. They beat Malaysia (five times champion) in the quarter-final, Denmark (2016 champion) in the semi-final, and made a clean sweep against Indonesia (14 times champion) in the final.
Their victory has taken the badminton world by storm and shocked many fans of the sport. How did a nation that reached the semi-final only once, and that was 43 years ago (1979), managed to win the Cup this time?
It was definitely not by luck nor was it an overnight feat; it was due to a well-crafted plan.
In order to grasp the secret of their success, a journey through time is needed. Forty-two years ago when Padukone won the All England title, there seemed to be no successor in India to take the mantle from him.
It was not until 2001 that India made an impact in the badminton world again, this time through Gopichand who won the All England title. He was a product of the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy and trained by Padukone himself.
Then things went quiet again. Seven long years later, Gopichand founded his own badminton academy (Pulella Gopichand Badminton Academy) at the expense of mortgaging his own house. From then on, the Indian badminton scene has never been the same!
The Academy has been producing successful players, beginning with Saina Nehwal, PV. Sindhu, K. Srikanth, Sameer Verma, HS. Prannoy, Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap, RMV. Gurusaidutt, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, among many others.
If you had checked the men’s singles ranking, you would have known that there are about five Indian players in the top 30 bracket! As a comparison, we only have one – Lee Zee Jia at number 6.
But how come India did not fare well in this team event previously? They did make an impact back in 2018 with their historic win at the Commonwealth Badminton Team Event, beating Malaysia in the final.
But at the Thomas Cup 2018 and 2021, they were ousted in the group stage and quarter final respectively. The reason might be that during both championships, some of their best players were haunted by injury and outside commitments that prevented them from playing.
However, for this year’s edition, for the first time ever all of India’s best players were able to participate. The Thomas Cup is a team event, therefore in order to win it a country needs at least two strong singles players and one doubles pair. India, with three on-form singles players (Laksya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and HS. Prannoy) and one formidable doubles pair (Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/chirag Shetty) were unbeatable.
It is interesting to note that their secret weapon lies in their first pair, who won the crucial points in the quarter-final against Malaysia, semi-final against Denmark, and final against Indonesia.
Had the pair lost their respective matches, the team could have been sent packing in the quarter-final.
Congratulations, Team India!