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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.

Terror Resurgent

The car bomb that ripped through the road near Delhi’s Red Fort Metro Station killing 13 and injuring 24 was yet another chilling reminder for us that Pakistan’s proxy terror war is alive and well. The incident was no isolated eruption but the tail-end of a grander conspiracy that India’s security agencies, to their credit, had mostly crushed. What they uncovered in Faridabad, Pulwama and beyond was a network years in the making, guided by Pakistan’s Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and aided by educated professionals who betrayed their oaths to heal.


The death toll in Delhi might have been increased a hundred-fold more had the plot not been foiled. In coordinated raids across states, the Jammu & Kashmir Police and Haryana STF seized close to 2,900 kilograms of explosive material - enough to flatten neighbourhoods - along with AK-47 rifles, detonators and bomb-making manuals. Among those arrested were doctors while another, Dr. Umar Nabi, is believed to have been the suicide bomber who perished in the blast.


Equally chilling was a parallel plan exposed in Gujarat, where a JeM affiliate was caught experimenting with ricin, one of the world’s deadliest toxins, capable of killing within hours. Had both modules succeeded, India could have faced its bloodiest night since 26/11 and the Pahalgam massacre earlier this year. That catastrophe was averted only by the quiet competence of the agencies who pieced together fragments of chatter, surveillance intercepts and suspicious money trails.


The Delhi blast served to underscore that Operation Sindoor has clearly not ended Pakistan’s proxy war. Islamabad’s intelligence-terror complex remains intact. What is chilling is the transformation of doctors who have turned jihadists. The Katra Medical College, where some of the accused reportedly studied, was founded and funded by the donations of Hindu pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi Shrine. That graduates of such an institution could repay faith with fanaticism is an obscenity that defies logical explanations.


This is not a problem of poverty or disenfranchisement. These are educated men radicalised by the steady drip of ideology from Islamic clerical mentors, encrypted channels and online echo chambers. The challenge is not simply to eliminate terrorists, but to drain the ecosystem that breeds them.


After the Pahalgam terror strike, Prime Minister Modi had warned Pakistan that every terror attack on Indian soil would be treated as an act of war. Will the Indian government again make Pakistan pay for continuing to host and fund terror as it did during Operation Sindoor?


The Delhi blast was meant to break the illusion that India’s cities were safe behind layers of intelligence and vigilance. It has succeeded in doing that. Yet the same episode also proved that India’s defences are faster in their response. The agencies have exposed what was building all along. The onus is on the government to ensure that the next explosion never needs to be remembered again. 


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