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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.

Wings Over Water

Updated: Feb 10, 2025

Iran’s first drone-carrier warship signals a bold shift in naval power projection, challenging Israel and the West while redrawing the balance in the Middle East’s waterways.

Iran

Iran’s unveiling of the Shahid Bagheri - its first-ever drone carrier - arrives at a critical moment of escalating tensions in the Middle East with Israel intensifying its shadow war against Iranian proxies and military assets, from Damascus to the Red Sea.


In this context, the Shahid Bagheri is a strong signal to Iran’s adversaries that the Islamic Republic intends to project power across the region and beyond.


At 180 meters long and boasting a runway for unmanned combat aircraft, the Shahid Bagheri can traverse 22,000 nautical miles without refuelling, a capability that extends Iran’s military reach well beyond its littoral waters. That such an achievement comes from a nation still labouring under crushing Western sanctions makes the development all the more significant. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which operates the vessel, is marketing it as a tool of deterrence.


For years, Iran’s drone program has been one of its most potent assets. The country has supplied unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Russia for its war in Ukraine, while also equipping proxies with attack drones that have harassed U.S. bases, Saudi oil facilities and Israeli positions. Now, by marrying this drone expertise with naval operations, Iran is creating a new dimension of maritime warfare.


The Shahid Bagheri’s ability to launch and retrieve drones at sea gives Iran a floating launchpad for surveillance, reconnaissance and potentially, long-range precision strikes. This mirrors U.S. and British concepts of drone-centric naval warfare, but with an Iranian twist: it is designed to operate under a doctrine of asymmetric warfare where Iran offsets its naval inferiority to Western fleets by leveraging cheap, expendable and hard-to-intercept drones.


Unlike conventional aircraft carriers, which require deep logistical support and significant escorts, a drone carrier built from a commercial hull is far less costly and more flexible. Such conversions are also harder to track under international regulations. In recent months, Iran has ramped up its naval modernization, despite Western economic sanctions. Alongside the drone carrier, Tehran has commissioned the Zagros, a domestically-built signals intelligence (SIGINT) ship capable of intercepting and decoding enemy communications. Combined, these assets indicate that Iran is shifting from a purely coastal defence force to a more sophisticated maritime player.


For Israel, the United States and Gulf Arab states, the implications are clear. Iran’s naval doctrine is evolving beyond swarming small boats and missile-laden speedboats. A floating drone base extends its reach to choke points like the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. If Iran chooses to flex its maritime muscles, these trade arteries could become battlegrounds.


The Shahid Bagheri is also a message to Washington. The U.S. Navy has been reinforcing its presence in the Gulf in response to Iranian harassment of commercial vessels. A drone carrier gives Iran an unpredictable and mobile asset to counterbalance American firepower. And with Russia and China deepening military ties with Tehran, it is not hard to imagine Iranian drones finding their way into joint naval exercises with these powers, further complicating the West’s strategic calculus.


The broader question is whether the Shahid Bagheri is a prelude to a more aggressive Iranian posture at sea. Iran insists its naval expansion is defensive. But Iran’s ability to disrupt regional security, whether through drone attacks, proxy warfare, or cyber operations, has only grown in recent years.

With Israel openly targeting Iranian weapons shipments in Syria, and with the Houthis escalating attacks on Red Sea shipping, the Middle East’s maritime domain is growing more volatile.


Iran’s history of maritime provocations, be it seizing tankers, sabotaging vessels, or harassing U.S. warships, suggests that the Shahid Bagheri could become a flashpoint in the near future. If Iran deploys the ship aggressively, it risks escalating the very conflicts it claims to deter. But if it uses the vessel strategically, it may succeed in reshaping the region’s naval balance without firing a shot.

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