Badminton - The underrated sport

Badminton is undoubtedly the fastest game in the world. Its a game which is unique in it’s own way. The beautiful game is professionally played indoors with feather shuttlecocks. The game originated around the mid 1880s in British India with some people naming it as “Battledore and Shuttlecock” and others as “Poona” (as it originated in Pune, Maharashtra, India). East Asian countries like China, Malasiya, Indonesia, India and some other countries like Denmark have produced world class players.

Although badminton has started gaining some attention, it is way far, far lesser than sports such as cricket and football. Many nations in the world still don’t know a game like badminton exists!

This game is unfortunately stereotyped as an easy pastime. Little do people know that being the fastest sport in the world, badminton requires a great amount of physical fitness, along with agility and a colossal amount of stamina. It has also been an Olympic sport since 1992. The sad condition of badminton works as a de-motivator for enthusiasts, making the situation even worse.

Badminton in no way is inferior to any other sport. With the high level of technology used in making racquets and shuttlecocks to the quality of courts, badminton does not lag behind other sports in these fields. What it lacks is professional interference and media attention. The amount of prize money which a player receives after winning the world championship in badminton is nearly equal to the cash prize given in a county level tournament in other sports. Even on television, one would not find LIVE world championship coverage of badminton, but you would easily find highlights of a football or a cricket match.

Its surprising how the world has just turned a blind eye towards the sport. The main problem is that it has not been able to gather the amount of fame other sports have. Its not that badminton matches are not entertaining to see, rather, I personally believe that it is way more interesting and unpredictable than any other sport.

Does a sport need to have scandals and scams to gain the fame it deserves? Should conspiracies be made so as to attain the fame it deserves? The answer is obviously no. It is traumatizing how indifferent the world is to a sport with such great potential.

Another issue is the lack of opportunity. The opportunities provided by platforms such as IPL have worked wonders for cricket. Young talents get a chance to showcase their talents and thus be noticed. It helps them emerge as great players. On the contrary, IBL was a complete fail. This was because there was no so called “glamour factor” in it. It went into a complete loss with little chances of it happening again this year.

All these are a testament to how bad the situation of badminton is.