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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.

Mahayuti versus Jarange

Mahayuti versus Jarange

The political terrain in Marathwada is undergoing a seismic shift ahead of the Assembly polls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), once the dominant force in the region, has its back to the wall following its catastrophic performance in the recent Lok Sabha election in Marathwada, where the saffron party failed to win even a single seat.


The ruling Mahayuti alliance scored just one of eight Lok Sabha in the region, with CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena winning the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar seat even as the BJP scored a naught.The most prominent disruptor here was arguably Manoj Jarange-Patil, the Maratha quota activist who made good his boast of being a ‘political kingmaker.’


Despite his professed disinterest in contesting elections, Jarange-Patil is now set to supplant the established political order by fielding candidates and leveraging his influence. His year-long campaign for granting immediate reservation to Marathas within the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category had directly caused the BJP’s (and the ruling Mahayuti’s) rout in the Lok Sabha election in Marathwada, which saw big leaders like Raosaheb Danve and Pankaja Munde bite the electoral dust.


Jarange-Patil’s continued scrutiny of key BJP figures, especially his sustained verbal assault on Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has long raised eyebrows about his hidden agenda. But the activist’s Svengali-like hold over the Maratha community, and the subsequent coalescing of an OBC versus Maratha standoff, has made it harder for BJP to walk the tightrope between placating the OBCs and appeasing the Marathas in this region.


While he will not personally contest, Jarange’s strategy involves fielding his own candidates, supporting selected candidates from other parties, and ensure the defeat of rivals. One can guess as to who Jarange’s ‘rivals’ are. Thus far, his agitation has noticeably benefited the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).


In a region perennially bedevilled by drought and agrarian crises and industrially challenged, emotive issues have always spread like bush-fire – be it Sharad Pawar’s controversial proposal to rename Marathwada University in the 1970s to Bal Thackeray and the undivided Shiv Sena securing a foothold to the rise of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the 2000s. Thus, it is no surprise that the latest entrant in Marathwada’s boiling cauldron in Jarange-Patil and his Maratha agitation.


Against this fraught background, the prestige of several BJP and Mahayuti heavyweights are at stake on November 20.


For all its accusations at the Congress for being ‘a party of dynasts’, the BJP has fielded a number of scions from established political families in Marathwada: Shreejaya Chavan, daughter of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan from the Chavan pocket borough of Bhokar in Nanded district. Chavan, who defected to the BJP from the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha, was thwarted by Maratha community activists while campaigning for the BJP candidate in the general election.


The party has gone with incumbent MLA Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, grandson of late Congress CM Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar, in Nilanga while Dhanajay Munde, an important Vanjari OBC face and Ajit Pawar’s confidant in the NCP, will be holding the Munde family bastion in Parli.


The BJP has renominated Santosh Danve, the two-term MLA from Jalna’s Bhokardhan, and son of Raosaheb Danve. It will be interesting to watch if the son will be successful in halting the Jarange juggernaut – something which the father failed to do.

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