Not the one for hyperbole, Pullela Gopichand, the national coach and the man largely responsible for India’s rise as a badminton power, called Sunday’s Thomas Cup triumph the country’s greatest team sport achievement outside cricket. Vimal Kumar, the soft-spoken player-turned-coach, was quick to proclaim that this moment can be to Indian badminton what the 1983 World Cup was to Indian cricket. It’s hard to dispute both claims. There are shades of ’83 in ’22: The stories of personal struggles and redemptions, the underdog element, and beating the most successful nation in the tournament’s history, 14-time champions Indonesia, to reach the top.
Writing in these pages, Gopichand recalled how during his playing days, India lost to the likes of Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and were happy merely by qualifying for the Thomas Cup. To go on and win it then — only the sixth nation to do so, showing how competitive the tournament is — is special. And this is no fluke. The title comes on the back of years of relentless hard work and an outcome of a system that has constantly churned out players who, on their day, could upset the best in the world. That even players like B Sai Praneeth, a 2019 World Championship medalist, could not even make the team, coupled with the fact that India has seven players in the world’s top 50, points to the depth in men’s badminton right now.
