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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.

The Barons of Solapur

When the Mohite-Patil father-son duo, Vijaysinh and Ranjitsinh and quit the BJP to return to the NCP (SP) this year, it worried the saffron party. A similar concern was felt in the undivided NCP circles when the powerful duo had left the party for a stint in the BJP in 2019. Such is the influence of the Mohite-Patil family—they control land swathes of land and runs factories and a large educational empire in Akluj.


Switching parties isn’t new for members of the family have moved across various major parties in Maharashtra. If Vijaysinh and his son Ranjitsinh have swiftly changed loyalties from the NCP to the BJP and back, his nephew Dhavalsinh was a former Shiv Sena member who moved to the Congress.


Brothers Pratapsinh and Vijaysinh entered politics in the 1980s albeit in different parties. Vijaysinh began his career as the sarpanch of Akluj and then represented Malshiras in the state assembly between 1980 and 2009. In 2003, he was sworn in as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and has served as a cabinet minister for public works, tourism and rural development for several years. During his time in the assembly, Vijaysinh carried ahead his father’s legacy and established sugar factories, dairies, poultry farms, schools colleges, nursing and engineering colleges and poultry farms, bringing economic development and employment to the area. Known to be very close to Sharad Pawar, Vijaysinh won the Lok Sabha elections from Madha near Solapur in 2009. His son Ranjitsinh is a former member of the legislative council who followed his father to the BJP but returned to the NCP (SP).


Under his brother’s guidance, Pratapsinh took his first steps in politics as a member of the Youth Congress in 1985 but was nominated to the Vidhan Parishad in 1997 as a BJP member with help from Gopinath Munde. He was sworn in as the Minister for Cooperation in the Shiv Sena-led government in the late 1990s and then subsequently was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha.


Vijaysinh’s nephew Dhairyasheel quit the BJP on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections to join NCP (SP) when the BJP denied him a ticket. He was warmly welcomed into the party and although he had never contested the assembly or parliamentary elections earlier, he won by a good margin. Another nephew who is Viyasinh’s political rival for supremacy in the area is Dhavalsinh, who has been with the Shiv Sena and then moved to the Congress in 2021. To counter his cousin who was contesting from Madha, he lent support to the BJP candidate.

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