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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.

Stardust in Assembly polls

The poll campaign in Maharashtra drew to a glitzy close with a touch of glamour and stardust as Pawan Kalyan, actor and the deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh drew huge crowds as he campaigned in Pune, Nanded and Latur for the BJP

Mumbai: What’s politics without a sprinkling of stardust? And when the stardust is powered by political heft, it makes it even more exciting. On Sunday, actor-politician Pawan Kalyan was clearly the flavour of the poll season in parts of Marathwada and even Pune as thousands turned up to see him, hear him and cheer for him. The candidates he was there for, were probably relegated to the background amid the clamour for a closer look at the movie star.


A BJP candidate even declared, in Shakespearean style, that Kalyan “came, saw and he conquered”. The actor-politician’s charm was evident in the crowds that turned up in Pune’s usually uptight Camp area. His opening greeting in Marathi of ‘majhya ladkya bahinino ani bhavano, prempurvak namaskar’ has charmed the audiences who gather. A movie star and influential politician from the south of India who speaks Marathi and claims a special connection with Pune and Maharashtra cannot be ignored.


In Latur, Kalyan clearly overshadowed the celebrity presence brought in by Ritesh Deshmukh whose brothers Amit and Dheeraj are contesting the elections. For years, the Deshmukh brothers have harnessed Ritesh’s movie and social media celebrityhood to garner crowds for rallies. But Kalyan’s reach prompted more and more BJP candidates to demand his presence as a crowd-puller.


The secret to Kalyan’s popularity and pull is in the demographics. Solapur, Nanded and Latur have a sizable number of Telugu speakers given that these districts share a common border with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Some reports estimate the population of Telugu speakers to be almost 40,000 in Nanded. In Solapur, the language, culture and cuisine reflects a confluence of Kannada, Telugu and Marathi with people effortlessly following all three languages. Food habits and culture often overlap too.


A walk through Shirdi or Trimbakeshwar will throw up boards of restaurants in Telugu just as devotees from Maharashtra make a beeline for a darshan at the Tirupati temple or the Gangapur Dattatrey Temple which falls in Karnataka. Trains from Kolhapur to cities of Karnataka bring devotees in hordes to the temple of Mahalakshmi. Major cities of Maharashtra such as Mumbai, Pune and Solapur have a sizable number of Telugu and Kannada speakers, a reflection of the shared culture and language before boundaries were drawn on the basis of linguistic representation. Cinema halls in these cities screen movies in Telugu, bringing actors like Pawan Kalyan closer to the people.

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