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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.

Home Shame

There are defeats, and then there are indictments. India’s 2–1 ODI series loss to New Zealand at home, sealed by a 41-run defeat in Indore, belongs firmly in the latter category.  The even stranger question is how are the Kiwis, of all teams, shattering India’s once-vaunted home turf invincibility for the second time in less than two years?


New Zealand first inflicted a historic defeat when they whitewashed India 3–0 at home in 2024, a feat that was described as the first such clean sweep by a touring side in about 91 years of Test history for India in home Test series involving three or more matches.


And now comes the Indore ODI win for New Zealand who clinched the series despite not having their best players with them. The bare numbers sting. Chasing 338, India folded at 296 despite Virat Kohli’s imperious 124 from 108 balls, an innings of vintage authority cruelly wasted. New Zealand, clinical and unflustered, had earlier defended their total with discipline, Michael Bracewell’s 3 for 54 and Jacob Duffy’s timely strikes puncturing India’s chase.


Yet, his was not New Zealand at full strength. There was no Kane Williamson, no Rachin Ravindra, no Trent Boult or Matt Henry. What arrived instead was a side closer to New Zealand’s experimental bench than its first XI.


Under head coach Gautam Gambhir and his rhetorical swagger, Indian cricket has lurched from setback to setback. A heavy Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss in Australia. An ODI series defeat to Sri Lanka. Home Test series losses to New Zealand and South Africa. And now, ignominy piled upon ignominy, a home ODI series defeat to what critics dubbed New Zealand’s ‘C team’ which out-bowled and outplayed India in Indian conditions.


The backlash against Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar is justified given their tenure has been marked by bizarre selection choices and ‘strategic’ experiments that have yielded perplexity more than progress: dropping in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad after a century, leaving out seasoned campaigners like Mohammed Shami and Axar Patel, and an almost compulsive tinkering that denies any unit the stability to build momentum.


These are the symptoms of incoherent leadership and misplaced priorities. The richest board in world cricket, with the deepest reservoir of talent, should not be reduced to an experimental lab where proven performers are discarded on ideological grounds. Yet that is where India finds itself today.


Worse still, these defeats have a corrosive effect on belief. Test and ODI defeats on home pitches, once the inviolate bedrock of Indian confidence, now only foreshadow more losses. What should have been routine triumphs have now become sources of existential angst. A generation of fans, accustomed to dominance, is now forced to reckon with Indian vulnerability.


Whether New Zealand possesses some mystical key to conquering India is beside the point. The real question is why India no longer feels like the team it once was at home. 


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