It’s not like authentic sports cities like Hyderabad in India with wide exposure to several disciplines didn’t try it. Just that smaller towns in Thailand, and the capital Bangkok alike, could completely barricade busy roads and completely close off traffic on Sundays, so that they turned into makeshift sports streets, where they consistently played sports.
Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, the then 55-year-old businesswoman, a self-made corporate success story, with a love for sport and the backing of Thai royals, was given a free mandate to pull off her Sport Street initiative and badminton, her adored sport, continued to blossom through impromptu shuttle games on streets.
Elected president of the Badminton World Federation this week, at age 60 and only the second woman to rise high in that hierarchy, Leeswadtrakul is expected to bring the same wide view, inclusiveness, access and foresight to the sport she’s now globally taken charge of, years after picking an economics degree from University of Manchester.
Women’s badminton doesn’t need an extra push—the players have been excellent ambassadors. But the entire sport could use some energy and verve in promoting itself and shaking off the yoke of contemplative complacency that has seen it not reach its popularity potential. Leeswadtrakul also needs to bring her business brain to market the sport and incentivise it with far larger prize money than what it currently offers.
Badminton has Asia’s large hearts fluttering in its palm. But it has just not managed to unlock the spending pockets of mammoth sponsors. Also, the World Championships need to get a tad serious and offer financial rewards, not just s trophy and the tag. Make it want to want it.
Twelve years with Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen, a former Olympic champion leading BWF, did set up the skeletal tournament structure for the sport and amp up the prize purses a little. But Leeswadtrakul might want to consider getting properly ambitious in seeking out global sponsors, cleaving open American markets, and prodding Asian big businesses to prop up the Asian sport to tennis levels. With her experience at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and her own career background, and absolute respect for the soul of the sport, Leeswadtrakul has her task cut out.
The chaos in BWF scheduling might be comparable to the tennis calendar bemoaned by all its top names. Nothing to take pride in, that’s another aspect of badminton that Leeswadtrakul might want to sort out sooner than later in her term. The sport will remain fringe at the next two Olympics – in the USA and Australia next, though some might say this is just the perfect opportunity to push in those two shuttle-sleeping sports behemoths.
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Leeswadtrakul understands Asian pragmatism towards sport, the reality of its challenges much better than Europeans. But she would do well to be aware that she’s spearheading one of the few sports besides TT where Asians can hold their own. So, it’s her responsibility to proselytize the good word about shuttle and make inroads into hitherto uncharted waters of those smug self-contented franchise league sporting economies leading up to LA28 and Brisbane32.
Leeswadtrakul is one of those Thai sports administration success stories, in that she straddled international roles with the IOC along with genuinely growing badminton in Thailand with systemic pathways. China is back to dominating the sport, but even at the Sudirman Cup, they know Thailand could be a slippery opponent given how it has progressed in all five categories.
It’s not just that Kunlavut Vitidsarn is heir apparent in men’s singles. But also that Thailand plays a beautiful style of badminton, technically solid but with creative accents. It’s down to when Leeswadtrakul decided to empower her coaches to make the big decisions, backing them to decide on badminton matters. There was no insecurity about losing her grip on her flock of players, and sporting decisions were left to the experts.
But while elite badminton reached stratospheric popularity in the Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen reign, and many forays were made into South America and Africa, through amateur events, Leeswadtrakul might have more ideas on how to broadbase the sport.
While she came to the forefront when taking up the responsibility of hosting tournaments during the fag end of pandemic lockdowns in Thailand, it’s in her other initiatives that the sport is entering the nooks and crannies of Thailand.
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She kicked off something called Sport Every Event (SEE), where every business, government or group conclave would make provisions for a side sporting event. You didn’t have to hit drops like Intanon Ratchanok or Tai Tzu-Ying but you could swap your biz suits for tracks and play a spot of badminton, be it in hotel resorts, business expo halls or even malls. A badminton net or TT table or boxing ring would be set up and everyday people were encouraged to play.
The ultimate ideal was to get the whole population healthy, and combined with Sunday sports streets, which cordoned off traffic and let people play,
Leeswadtrakul was aiming to extend access to everyone. She had declared war on what the Thais called ‘office syndrome’ — cardiac and diabetes diseases from the sedentary lifestyles of long-hour office goers. And the country was also losing youth to narcotics and crime, which she wanted to stem through diversionary sports.
It helped that her priorities were not politics and its attendant shenanigans and the focus was not on keeping provincial votes happy. But she believed in inclusionary policies and could unite the Thai sporting fraternity, also furthering her own credentials enough to get elected BWF president.
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Gully cricket or recreational impromptu massy cricket is a highly underrated talent and follower base in India for its largest sport. Leeswadtrakul pulled off her equivalent of gully badminton, even as she oversaw the growth of the Thai symphony and other arts in the country. Snow sculpting at the Winter Olympics at the PyeongChang Games in 2018, was another burst of inspiration that quickly became popular under her stewardship. Air badminton (outdoor shuttles) could do with a similar push.
Badminton could do with wooing the masses and classes, tingling cash registers by pulling big corporates as well as engaging the streets’ emotions. Leeswadtrakul’s time as BWF president will be watched with interest for how much she can achieve as a career businesswoman, after a true blue athlete-turned-administrator tried for a dozen years. The needle moved a little for the sport, but not very much.
