Is India on the verge of a badminton revolution?

Beyond the image of Saina Nehwal and co. associated with Indian badminton, a revolution is brewing

On the surface, Indian badminton seems to revolve around a dozen international players, among whom the better-known ones are Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, V. Diju, and a few others. After Saina’s brilliant 2010 season, in which she won three Superseries titles and a Commonwealth Games gold, nothing seems to have gone her way this year. The lone title she picked up was the Swiss Open GP Gold.

But the health of a sport is not just about the performance of its international players. There are many ways to measure a sport’s health, and public participation is one of them.

Away from the attention that Saina and her compatriots command, on a sub-terranean level almost, developments are underway. The effects of these will only be apparent in five or ten years’ time.

Apart from the two state inter-club IPL-style leagues that happened in Pune and Bangalore — and the promise of an Indian Badminton League next year — the fast-changing face of Indian cities is leaving an impression upon all sports, particularly badminton. Less than five years ago, the average fan in Bangalore, for instance, had little access to the game. The best facility was a ten-court stadium near Cunningham Road, with five of these booked through the day for professional players at the Padukone Academy, and in the evenings and mornings for club members of the Karnataka Badminton Association. Nearly every other court was owned by a club (Century Club, Bowring Institute, Malleswaram Association, etc), which meant that access was restricted to those capable of affording exorbitant club membership fees. The average badminton enthusiast had thus no place to play. It is little surprise therefore that badminton continued to be a sport for upper-middle class and rich people who were members of exclusive clubs.

As middle class aspirations changed over the last five years or so, Real Estate responded.

P. Kumar runs a successful badminton store on Queen’s Road and has been witnessing a huge demand lately for badminton. Where was the demand coming from? Kumar’s informal study revealed that there were more than 800 courts in Bangalore — in apartment complexes. Private builders were providing courts to residents because of badminton’s popularity among men and women as a ‘safe’ sport that also builds fitness. There had been an unbelievable increase in the number of courts, and therefore, in business. Kumar saw a great business opportunity — apart from dealing in badminton equipment, he struck a deal with a company in China that supplied synthetic badminton flooring mats. Considering the number of courts that are being added every day, he won’t run out of business soon. It won’t be too long before the tier-two cities follow suit, and we will soon have a great number of courts where thousands of players can pursue the sport.

The number of players taking to the game is increasing exponentially, as any junior tournament will reveal. Organisers are finding it hard to handle the number of entries at junior tournaments. Several private junior academies have sprung up to cater to the demand.

The problem for India, of course, is that the national association has no inkling of the potential of the sport. There is just no structure that can harness the numbers taking up the sport. The junior circuit consists of a few national and state ranking tournaments.

What is required is to build a framework that will ensure a consistent supply of top-quality internationals. The club league system in Denmark can perhaps be used as a model, for it has helped Denmark produce top quality players consistently. In the absence of a system, the odd player like Saina Nehwal will rise, but as a team, India will flounder. It’s time for the national association to wake up to reality of a changed Indian urbanscape with a great potential for a world-class team.

It’s a well-known fact about Indian sport that the numbers at the junior level are far greater than those at the senior level as many players drop out of training in the 10th standard or 2nd PUC, to concentrate on their academics. The association, without any work on its part, is in charge of a sport with burgeoning numbers. It will have to figure out a way to retain those numbers from the junior into the senior level. If it can do that, India could well leap into the echelon of the top badminton playing countries of the world.