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By:

Bhalchandra Chorghade

11 August 2025 at 1:54:18 pm

Applause for Cricket, Silence for Badminton

Mumbai: When Lakshya Sen walked off the court after the final of the All England Badminton Championships, he carried with him the disappointment of another near miss. The Indian shuttler went down in straight games to Lin Chun-Yi, who created history by becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei to lift the prestigious title. But the story of Lakshya Sen’s defeat is not merely about badminton final. It is also about the contrasting way India celebrates its sporting heroes. Had the same...

Applause for Cricket, Silence for Badminton

Mumbai: When Lakshya Sen walked off the court after the final of the All England Badminton Championships, he carried with him the disappointment of another near miss. The Indian shuttler went down in straight games to Lin Chun-Yi, who created history by becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei to lift the prestigious title. But the story of Lakshya Sen’s defeat is not merely about badminton final. It is also about the contrasting way India celebrates its sporting heroes. Had the same narrative unfolded on a cricket field, the reaction would have been dramatically different. In cricket, even defeat often becomes a story of heroism. A hard-fought loss by the Indian team can dominate television debates, fill newspaper columns and trend across social media for days. A player who narrowly misses a milestone is still hailed for his fighting spirit. The nation rallies around its cricketers not only in victory but also in defeat. The narrative quickly shifts from the result to the effort -- the resilience shown, the fight put up, the promise of future triumph. This emotional investment is one of the reasons cricket enjoys unparalleled popularity in India. It has built a culture where players become household names and their performances, good or bad, become part of the national conversation. Badminton Fights Contrast that with what happens in sports like badminton. Reaching the final of the All England Championships is a monumental achievement. The tournament is widely considered badminton’s equivalent of Wimbledon in prestige and tradition. Only the very best players manage to reach its final stages, and doing it twice speaks volumes about Lakshya Sen’s ability and consistency. Yet the reaction in India remained largely subdued. There were congratulatory posts, some headlines acknowledging the effort and brief discussions among badminton enthusiasts. But the level of national engagement never quite matched the magnitude of the achievement. In a cricketing context, reaching such a stage would have triggered days of celebration and analysis. In badminton, it often becomes just another sports update. Long Wait India’s wait for an All England champion continues. The last Indian to win the title was Pullela Gopichand in 2001. Before him, Prakash Padukone had scripted history in 1980. These victories remain among the most significant milestones in Indian badminton. And yet, unlike cricketing triumphs that are frequently revisited and celebrated, such achievements rarely stay in the mainstream sporting conversation for long. Lakshya Sen’s journey to the final should ideally have been viewed as a continuation of that legacy, a reminder that India still possesses the talent to challenge the world’s best in badminton. Instead, it risks fading quickly from public memory. Visibility Gap The difference ultimately comes down to visibility and cultural investment. Cricket in India is not merely a sport; it is an ecosystem built over decades through media attention, sponsorship, and mass emotional attachment. Individual sports, on the other hand, often rely on momentary bursts of recognition, usually during Olympic years or when a medal is won. But consistent performers like Lakshya Sen rarely receive the sustained spotlight that their achievements deserve. This disparity can also influence the next generation. Young athletes are naturally drawn to sports where success brings recognition, financial stability and national fame. When one sport monopolises the spotlight, others struggle to build similar appeal. Beyond Result Lakshya Sen may have finished runner-up again, but his performance at the All England Championship is a reminder that India continues to produce world-class athletes in disciplines beyond cricket. The real issue is not that cricket receives immense attention -- it deserves the admiration it gets. The concern is that athletes from other sports often do not receive comparable appreciation for achievements that are equally significant in their own arenas. If India aspires to become a truly global sporting nation, its applause must grow broader. Sporting pride cannot remain confined to one field. Because somewhere on a badminton court, an athlete like Lakshya Sen is fighting just as hard for the country’s colours as any cricketer on a packed stadium pitch. The only difference is how loudly the nation chooses to cheer.

Breeding ground for Fidayeen, links to Hamas

  • PTI
  • May 8, 2025
  • 3 min read

By Sumir Kaul

New Delhi: The banned Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror group's two 'Markaz' (centres) – its Bahawalpur headquarters and Narowal in Pakistan's Punjab – functioned as a breeding ground for suicide attackers, had links with Palestine's Hamas and served as a facility for hoarding smuggled NATO arms from Afghanistan, officials said here on Thursday.


Both these centres located on the opposite ends of Pakistan's Punjab province were among the nine targets hit by missiles launched by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the early hours of Wednesday, in a strong retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, in which 25 tourists and a local guide were gunned down by terrorists.


According to the officials, the Bahawalpur centre of JeM, spread over 15 acres, is run by de-facto chief Abdul Rauf Asgar and the area has residential houses of JeM founder Masood Azhar and other family members.


Masood Azhar acknowledged after the IAF strikes codenamed 'Operation Sindoor' that 10 members of his family and four close associates were killed in India's missile attack on the outfit's headquarters in Bahawalpur.


A statement attributed to Azhar said those killed in the attack on Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur included the JeM chief's elder sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children from his extended family.


The Bahawalpur centre is notorious for hoarding arms and ammunition left behind by the NATO forces in Afghanistan, the officials said.


Often frequented

They said Bahawalpur is often frequented by JeM commanders who were fighting in Afghanistan, and that Asgar purchases as well as smuggles consignments of weaponry, including M4 series rifles, through a network of criminals based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was earlier known as North West Frontier Province (NWFP).


Besides the M4 series, the arms and ammunition included sniper rifles, armour-piercing bullets, Night Vision Devices (NVD), and rifles fitted with NVD.


About the centre in Narowal, the officials said the Markaz has been used for learning tactics from the Palestine Hamas group. The involvement of Hamas started in 2014 when one of the Jaish terrorists, Mohammed Adnan Ali, codenamed 'Doctor,' had imparted paraglider training to operatives of another group, Khalistan Tiger Force Ramandeep Singh alias Goldy, in Thailand.


The training was given by Jagtar Singh Tara who was deported to India and his associates Jaswinder Singh Jassa and Mohammad Umar Gondal.


The tactics for use of tunnels for infiltration and paragliding seem to be inspired by the modus operandi used by Hamas in the Middle East, the officials said, adding further that there are multiple inputs about regular interactions of JeM terrorists of JeM with Hamas leaders.


Hamas functionaries

Then, in February this year, senior Hamas functionaries addressed a rally on 'Kashmir Solidarity Day' in Rawalakot, PoK, that had top Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad cadres in attendance.


The rally was addressed by Hamas spokesperson Khalid Qaddoumi, a development Indian agencies saw as an attempt to link the jihadi campaign in Jammu and Kashmir to the Palestinian fight in Kashmir.


The Bahawalpur and Narowal facilities have produced terrorists responsible for multiple suicide attacks in India, including the 2016 strike at the Pathankot IAF base and the 2020 attack in Nagrota.


Among those indoctrinated for these "fidayeen" (suicide) attacks were close relatives of Masood Azhar, specifically his nephew Tallah Rasheed, as well as Usman, Umar, and Mohammed Ismail, also known as 'Lambu'. After being indoctrinated at these facilities, the individuals were reportedly sent to Balakote for arms training.


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