Former badminton champion turns rickshaw-puller, reveals struggles

While Indian badminton was revelling in the spotlight recently, a forgotten man’s fortunes displayed a stark contrast, as he hopped onto his cycle rickshaw to try and earn his day’s wages.

The Indian Badminton League was in full force over the last month, as the sport adopted the mega-rich IPL‘s franchise-based structure in an attempt to make a renaissance of sorts, driving in all-time high broadcast deals, revenues and audiences. In an auction process that saw the world’s best players go on sale, Indian shuttle star Saina Nehwal was bought by the Hyderabad HotShots for an impressive $120,000.

On the other side of the spectrum, Hemraj Verma tried, and failed, to accumulate the mere $270 he required to enter his name for the World Masters Badminton Championships.

He wouldn’t have been spiteful. In fact, given Verma’s contributions towards the development of Indian badminton over the years, the 55-year old player from Sunam, Punjab would have been pleased to see India’s new crop of badminton stars bask in the limelight. Yet, he would have hoped to have been afforded a helping hand after his own dream suffered a rude and unexpected shock.

Verma was inclined towards sports even since his early years, and even showed great promise as a junior-level cricketer. However, as fate would have it, he eventually swapped his cricket bat for a badminton racquet, coaching young players in Sunam from the 1980s. Age might have been catching up with him at the turn of the millennium, but that hardly proved to be a deterrent for the strong-willed Verma, as he started competing in domestic masters championships from 2004.

Great success followed, as he won numerous tournaments in the masters category, thereby qualifying for the World Masters Championships in Richmond, Canada in 2011.

Verma was confident of a strong performance at the event, and despite bowing out in the third round to Curt Ingedahl, looked to go one better in the 2013 edition of the competition. He was well on his way towards making the trip to Turkey, the location of this year’s tournament, but saw his life take a drastic turn for the worse two months before the deadline for registration to the event. Verma, struggling to make ends meet already, was told by the officials of SUS Club, where he trained youngsters for the previous two years, that his services would not be required any more.

Unperturbed, he moved to the streets and hoped to make the required $270 off his rickshaw-pulling. After all, his road to the 2011 event in Canada had not been an easy one either. Convinced of his abilities to match up to the competition from around the world, he had to sell his shop to arrange for his expenses at the event. This time however, it wasn’t to be, as Verma saw his dreams shattered, his hopes of playing the international competition dissolved.

The blow was a bitter one for Verma, who had claimed titles in the Punjab Masters Championship in the lead-up to the event. His dismissal from the club was a surprising decision as well, as his trainees had notched up eight titles in Punjab State Badminton Championships.

Yet, he hasn’t given up on the sport yet, and says, “I cannot leave badminton. After the club authorities refused to give me permission, I have been teaching young players in open grounds and schools. I have produced eight state champions in badminton and yet the state government has not given me any assistance.”

Having taken a number of young badminton players to success, as well as represented the country, Verma pleads for better treatment from the country’s sport authorities. But for now, he’ll have to be content with the living he makes on his rickshaw, and memories of his time in the spotlight in 2011. An encore, unfortunately, remains unlikely.