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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.

Military not a solution to Pakistan problem, need more rounded approach: Ex-envoy TCA Raghavan

  • PTI
  • Jun 4, 2025
  • 3 min read


New Delhi: Amidst growing tensions and a "securitised" India-Pakistan relationship, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan TCA Raghavan has cautioned that there is no military solution to the problem, urging for a more rounded approach that leverages India's full spectrum of strengths, including diplomatic, societal and political tools.


Speaking at the India Habitat Centre here on Tuesday on the topic, "India-Pakistan relations in light of Operation Sindoor", Raghavan emphasised that India's true influence lies in its economic vitality, social pluralism, institutional resilience and cultural reach -- not just in its military prowess.


In fact, according to the former diplomat who served in Pakistan for seven years, the Pakistani military does not feel threatened by India's military might, but rather seeks "to stand up to it".


"What worries Pakistanis is not your military, but your overall trajectory as a nation -- your economic growth, your societal progress, the pluralism of your society and the strength of your institutions. That is what they really fear.... There is no military solution, you have to bring in all your strengths.


"Your strengths are enormous in the real sense.... You are truly a cultural, social and political hegemon where Pakistan is concerned. So if we move to a purely security-based relationship, all of that is being put aside. Given that you are not just dealing with Pakistan for two, three or even five years, but for a very long time, you need a more rounded approach," Raghavan noted.


The former diplomat served as India's high commissioner to Pakistan from June 6, 2013 till his retirement on December 31, 2015.


Underscoring that the situation with Pakistan is far from merely a "tactical or military issue", the 69-year-old asserted that the central challenge today is "how to manage a volatile and friction-ridden interface with a difficult neighbour in the absence of a functioning bilateral relationship" -- a relationship, he noted, that has been "progressively hollowed out" since 2017-18.


In fact, according to the seasoned diplomat, the recent decision to place the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance reflects just how few diplomatic options remain on the table.


"This time, you were, in a sense, left with no other option but to place the IWT in abeyance. Everything else that could have been done had already been done. There was no other peg of the relationship which you could have used as a sanction against Pakistan. The cupboard is bare," Raghavan said.


He also highlighted the danger of viewing Pakistan through what he called a "monochromatic lens" and said there is now a tendency to treat all of Pakistan as uniformly "bad".


Reflecting on India's long-standing position that "talks and terror cannot go together", Raghavan observed that while the principle remains valid, its rigid application may be limiting diplomatic flexibility.


"This is really what 'talks and terror cannot go together' means. But in the process, you are losing the capacity to distinguish between shades of behaviour," he said.


To buttress his point, the author of "The People Next Door: The Curious History of India-Pakistan Relations" gave the example of the 2021 ceasefire reaffirmation agreement at the Line of Control (LoC), despite India facing severe tensions with China at the time, and argued that there was a period of "relatively better" behaviour by Pakistan.


"But we did not take cognisance of it. If you do not distinguish between shades of behaviour, you tie your hands behind your back," he added, advocating for a more calibrated policy, the one where "you have to deal with neighbours as they are, not as you would like them to be".


The discussion, organised by India Foundation, was also joined by Ruchi Ghanashayam, India's former high commissioner to Ghana, South Africa and the United Kingdom, who was also the first Indian woman diplomat stationed in Islamabad.

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