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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 Lads of Latur

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Latur

In October 2019, actor Riteish Deshmukh posted on X, “We did it papa”. The jubilatory post was in recognition of the electoral victories of his two brothers, older brother Amit and their youngest sibling Dhiraj. With his win in 2019, Dhiraj became the fourth Deshmukh to enter the Maharashtra legislature. His father Vilasrao Deshmukh rose from being the sarpanch of an earlier obscure village of Babhalgaon to becoming a two-time chief minister of Maharashtra and a union minister. His uncle Diliprao followed his older brother into politics and served as a minister in the state. Vilasrao’s older son Amit is a two-time member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly and a former minister. Over the past four decades, the Deshmukh clan had wielded considerable clout in the state’s power circles with an almost iron-like grip over the politics of Latur.


Seen as a shrewd political craftsman, but, with a warm and pleasant demeanour, Vilasrao’s career has seen sharp highs and lows especially when he to step down from the chief minister’s position following a controversy and also faced corruption charges in the Adarsh building case. But his rise has also been meteoric. An alumnus of Pune’s ILS college, Vilasrao dabbled in the local politics of Babhalgaon and Latur before entering the Maharashtra state legislature in 1980 and becoming a minister, two years later. It is said that he tried to topple Sharad Pawar’s government in the state a few times but was unsuccessful. As a minister until 1995 and then as the chief minister in 1999, Vilasrao handled varied portfolios from industries, agriculture and cooperatives to the sensitive home department. While he wasn’t new to controversies, the biggest blow came in 2008 when he was stripped off the CM’s seat because of the public uproar following his visit to the terror-stricken sites along with filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.


While the controversies continued, Vilasrao was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Congress and was made a minister at the centre. Ill health plagued him even as he attended the glitzy weddings of his sons, Riteish and Dhiraj who married actress Genelia Deshmukh and filmmaker Deepshikha Bhagnani respectively. Over his career, Vilasrao also established educational institutes and a sugar factory. He passed away in August 2012 in Chennai after a liver failure.


His older son Amit who was, for long, viewed as his political heir, made his debut in the state legislature in 2014 while he was the district president of the Congress in Latur. The year also marked his younger brother Dhiraj’s debut in state politics from the Latur Rural constituency, re-establishing the Deshmukh clan’s goodwill in Latur.

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