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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.

India dares, glares at L&T C-MD

90-hrs work-week

S. N. Subrahmanyan

Mumbai: An innocuous ‘progressive’ remark by Larsen & Toubro group Chairman-Managing Director S. N. Subrahmanyan (SNS) - mooting a 90-hour-week or deterring his 4-lakh plus employees from ‘staring’ at their wives on Sundays - triggered a massive backlash engulfing India Inc, trade unions, celebs and commoners alike besides acidic outpour or lampooning on the social media.


The comment – coming at a time when India almost scraped the bottom (126 out of 143) in the World Happiness Report-2024 – saw SNS mostly getting frowned upon by the likes of Gautam Adani, Anand Mahindra, Harsh Goenka, Adar Poonawalla, Rajiv Bajaj, Harsh Mariwala, CITU, AITUC and Deepika Padukone and other women, plus many more.


Apparently avoiding a direct attack, Adani – the second richest Indian in the world – told an interviewer that nobody should ‘impose’ their individual work-life balance on others.


The Adani Group chief also advocated employees to find their own ‘work-life’ balance while exhorting that they spend at least four hours with the family, and if both sides were happy, then it would be well.


Flaying SNS, the All India Trade Union Congress General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said though India has the need for all the work hours possible, “what about the raging unemployment” with a lot of youthful energy going waste.


Hitting hard, she (Kaur) said that the wealth created by the existing workforce at an (average) 48 hours a week is siphoned off by “leeches like Adanis, Ambanis, Choksis, Modis and others” increasing the rich-poor divide in India to a level where it was 80 years ago.


Terming SNS’ statement as ‘satanic’, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) General Secretary Tapan Kumar Sen suspected a ‘rogue competition among corporate messiahs” to rinse the blood and sweat of Indian workers in connivance with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

The AITUC’s All India Working Women’s Forum Convenor Vahidha Nizam condemned the objectification, dehumanization and disrespect shown to the womenfolk by SNS’ remarks.


“Wives are not to be adorned or be ‘stared at’… Subrahmanyan should know that a woman is an independent entity and her identity is not defined by her relationships,” she added sternly.

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