Srikanth gives Indian fans reasons to cheer

Badminton stars’ recent exploits show there is life beyond cricket

India’s badminton star Kidambi Srikanth, who recorded a stunning victory over Olympic and two-time world champion Chen Long to win the Australian Open Superseries final in Sydney on Sunday, has eased the disappointment of Indian sports fans somewhat over the cricket team losing the ICC Champions Trophy to Pakistan.

The success of Indian shuttlers in international arena, with their men and women players stunning world’s top ranked players on a regular basis, seems to show that there is more to Indian sport than cricket.

It was Sania Nehwal who led the upsurge of badminton nearly a decade back. She became first Indian woman shuttler to reach finals of All England Championships and then created history by becoming the first Indian woman to scale the top of rankings — apart from landing the Olympics bronze in London 2012.

Srikanth announced his arrival on the big stage by winning the 2014 China Open, defeating Lin Dan in the final to become the first Indian male shuttler to win a Super Series Premier title. Parupalli Kashyap went on to bag gold in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. P.V. Sindhu arrived soon enough to win the hearts of everyone with her skills.

In 2016 Summer Olympics, the whole nation came to a standstill when she played in the women’s final — losing narrowly to world No. 1 Carolina Marin to end up with a silver.

Interestingly, Indian cricketers themselves followed the achievements of badminton stars and even personally encouraged them.

Sunil Gavaskar, an avid badminton player himself, makes sure not to miss Indian badminton players in action at international matches — finding time during the last WBF Dubai Super Series final to watch Sindhu from the front rows and cheer for her.

Soon after Srikanth won the Australian Open Superseries, Sachin Tendulkar was among the top sportsmen to tweet his congratulations. Srikanth, in reply, tweeted: “Thank you sir. Your tweet is like a billion wishes for me. Will keep giving my best for the country.”

Incidentally, Srikanth, who is a huge Tendulkar fan, met the legendary batsman before the 2015 World Championship and Tendulkar remarked that he would become No. 1 soon. Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag too are among the sportsmen to quickly congratulate Srikanth.

The achievements in badminton spurred on PNB MetLife, a leading insurance company, to back Badminton Association of India for funding tournaments for Under-9 to Under-15 age groups all over India.

Former badminton stars like Pulella Gopichand, Vimal Kumar also work hard through their academies in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, respectively.