Kidambi Srikanth - The next big thing in Indian badminton

K Srikanth

Huge expectations

It was quarter finals day at the Commonwealth Games and ostensibly the biggest day of Kidambi Srikanth’s career. He lost. The score line read 10-21, 21-12, 12-21 in favour of the Singaporean Derek Wong. He shook hands, with heads bowed walked out of the arena. Heartbroken, perhaps as he felt as he had let his countrymen down. Heartbreak, as a chapter in a sportsman’s life, is often more powerful, and moving, than triumph. Heartbreak opens up the wounds of the past and injects a sportsman with determination which drives the engine of his career towards his dreams.

Competing for medals for India is no longer a romantic quest as it was half a century back. Perhaps because, the India of 2014 expects medals. And expectations are not easy to meet; especially if that is of a billion plus nation hungry for sporting success. The mantle of carrying the hopes of the nation remained in the hands of Srikanth’s illustrious compatriot, Parupalli Kashyap, who duly delivered a stellar performance under pressure and landed India its first men’s Commonwealth Games badminton gold since the late Syed Modi in the 1982 Games.

Brilliance and its relatives marvelous and inspirational – needs the appropriate canvas to blossom, and sport perhaps presents the most transparent canvases of them all. Sport does not give you a place to hide but gives you a platform to reflect. Even in his quarter final loss, the 21 year old prodigy from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Srikanth remains India’s shining star in the world of badminton and the harbinger of hope of carrying the burden of a nation.

Pullela Gopichand academy helped immensely

Hailing from a humble middle class family in Andhra Pradesh, the lanky lad has risen from a world ranking of 240 in 2012 to a career best 13 in May 2014, the highest ranked Indian in the world at the point of time.

The transition has not been easy. Sportsmen sacrifice their childhood and their youth chasing their dream. And for Srikanth the story has not been any different. Inspired by his elder brother, Srikanth started playing badminton at an early age. The pivotal moment of his life came when he shifted base from Vishakhapatnam to the Pulella Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad in 2009. Training at the All England Champion’s academy not only provided him the competitive fervor, but also provided him the platform to harness his talent. And the results have been telling.

He became the second Indian men’s singles player to win a Grand Prix Gold title by winning the 2013 Thailand Grand Prix Gold and followed this up by winning the 2013 All India Senior National Championships beating defending champion Parupalli Kashyap. The giant killer was slowly finding his stride on the big stage.

Needs to handle pressure better

In his own words, Srikanth had told the IANS “I want to win more Grand Prix and Grand Prix Golds this year. The start to 2014 has also been good. I have played against a few top ranked players and beaten them. I want to continue that here as well as I want to do well on my home soil.”

Currently ranked 29 in the world, Srikanth’s aim is to house a seat in the top 20 by the end of the season. And he knows it is not easy to stay at the top as it is to reach there. Because sport is cruel. Individual sport, more so, because you cannot rely on your teammates to compensate for your performance. An off day means an off day, loss in ranking points, pack your bags and move on the next tournament. And travelling through cities and airports, away from your family, maintaining your fitness and your performance cannot happen as if it is a remote controlled assembly line routine production.

Relentlessness, persistence, evolution and reinvention: these are essentially the components of the life-cycle of a sportsman competing in a hyper-competitive technology supported modern sporting circuit. And Srikanth knows this. His reflexes are superb, his net play not tight and his movement elastic. What is perhaps needed is big match temperament and the confidence to dig deep and come through tight matches.

Much needed guidance

In an individual sport like badminton, closing out tight matches does not come regularly to even the greatest of champions. To have the courage to go for your shots when needed the most, the mind needs to be in a monkish state, well-oiled with a grease of inner self-peace. This is how champions function. Lin Dan has those ingrained in every bone in his body, which is why he perhaps remains the greatest modern day icon of the sport.

The transition from a good player to a great player is not easy and demands machine-like effectiveness day in and day out. Srikanth needs to figure out a way to win even when he is not playing at the top of his game. Greatness in any sport is not a byproduct of individual talent only.

It is a perspiring manifestation of a “behind the scenes” team that acts as the elixir of the player’s performance. Thankfully, Srikanth has great support system in the form of the Gopichand Academy providing him the platform and the technical guidance needed to be successful at the highest level.

To add to this, he is supported by the GoSports Foundation, which offers him monetary support, as well as access to expertise in various areas of sports sciences. The GoSports Foundation has had its own chapter of influence in his evolution since 2012, providing the kind of support every professional athlete needs to sustain the rigors of a competitive and demanding life.

Due recognition

At the peak of his powers, Pulella Gopichand once said “I am well known in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, but not in my own country”. It cannot simply get more unfortunate than this for any sportsman flying the national colors with pride. However the India of today is slowly but surely recognizing its “other” sporting superstars. And organizations like GoSports Foundation have a lot of hand in this change. Not only do they offer funds to their athletes, they also provide them with the right support staff to evolve as a sportsman. Thankfully for Srikanth, he is in the right hands in terms of career management which ensures that he can concentrate on his sport.

The Asian Games will present a greater challenge for the young prodigy from India and he needs to be mentally ready for the biggest test awaiting him. For a youngster who knows how to dream, Srikanth will be ready.

But he alone does not need to be ready, we also need to be ready. Because Kidambi Srikanth is no longer a rising star; he is a star. He needs to be nurtured collectively to help us realize the dream we have of having sporting superstars. He is our responsibility. We need Srikanth more than he needs us. Because he is a rare breed of talent in a land that has failed to produce sporting geniuses with the same regularity as it does in other walks of life. Because when sportsmen win we preen.

And for us to get an opportunity to take pride of our sportsmen we must support them: in defeat, in victories and in despair. They are the window of our emotions; they will let tears roll through our eyes when we hear our national anthem at an international podium.

And, as a nation, it is perhaps high time we, in our collective consciousness, recognized sport as a form of education: an instrument of human development.

About Deepanjan Deb

Deepanjan Deb works with Gallup Consulting as a Learning Solutions Consultant, based out of Mumbai. He works in the area of Strengths Based Development for educational as well as corporate institutions. He has freelanced with various media organizations covering various facets of sport and its applications. His primary area of interest is Sport as an Instrument of Human Development. An alumnus of NIT Allahabad and XLRI Jamshedpur, he was the awarded the Gold Medal for Best All Round Student of XLRI in 2012.