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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.

SS (UBT)-MNS-MES flex muscles

The residents of Mira Road take out march under the leader of MNS on Tuesday in support of Marathi language. Pic: Bhushan Koyande
The residents of Mira Road take out march under the leader of MNS on Tuesday in support of Marathi language. Pic: Bhushan Koyande

 Thane/Mumbai: The ongoing language row flooded onto the roads in the Mira Road-Bhayander towns of Thane with a massive pro-Marathi procession taken out by the Marathi Ekikaran Samiti (MES) along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena-Shiv Sena (UBT) that rattled the MahaYuti government.

 

In an embarrassment, a ruling ally Shiv Sena’s Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, who is also the local MLA of Ovala-Majiwada constituency which includes Mira Road, rushed to join the MNS-led morcha, but had to beat a hasty retreat after someone aimed a plastic bottle at him (which missed), others leered him at him with the slogan of ‘50 Khoke, Ekdum Okay’ or ‘Jai Gujarat’.

 

Defying the Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar Police’s prohibitory orders and denial of permission for the march, thousands of angry activists of the three parties gathered since dawn in Mira Road, leading to a high-voltage drama as local traffic virtually came to a standstill.

 

The spectacle became more dramatic as the police detained or rounded up several local MNS leaders including MNS Palghar head Avinash Jadhav, Mira Road chief Sandeep Rane early on Tuesday, angering the activists who turned up in small groups but large numbers from Thane and other districts to the Shanti Park area.

 

Police in action

Even before the procession started, the police caught many of the protestors and dumped them in vans to the local station houses or other venues but the activists were undeterred and insisted on taking out the morcha.

 

This coupled with the denial of permission resulted in a volley of heated exchanges with the MBVV Police, stray incidents of scuffles and thunderous sloganeering, and thousands of activists of the three parties squatting on roads as the fracas continued for hours.

 

Mira Road town was ostensibly chosen for the procession as a retaliation for the business and trading community on July 3 to protest against the MNS’ roughing up of a local shopkeeper Babulal Khimji Chaudhary there on June 29.

 

While at least seven MNS activists were arrested for the incident, the MBVV Police permitted the traders’ procession on July 3, but denied clearance to the MES-MNS-SS (UBT) march today, from a particular route passing through Gujarati-Marwari dominated areas.

 

“The Gujaratis (in Mira Road) were given the green signal to undertake a protest then, but Marathis are being denied the same,” said an irate MNS Mumbai President and Spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande on Tuesday he later rushed to Mira Road to participate, as many blamed the local Bhayander BJP MLA Narendra Mehta and Minister Sarnaik for the denial of permission.

 

Maintaining a tough stance vis-à-vis the morcha, MBVV Commissioner of Police Madhukar Pandey said that they had certain intelligence inputs for denying the permission from the route the parties sought and also detained some persons, but said the police were ready to allow the march from an alternate route.

 

As tempers seemed to rise this afternoon, MNS’ Sandeep Deshpande, SS (UBT)’s Rajan Vichare plus Vinod Ghosalkar and others rushed to Mira Road to pacify their people and prevent the situation from escalating.

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