No use complaining about lack of appreciation

The two elite shuttlers have been peeved at the lack of recognition and appreciation shown by the general population on India winning a bronze medal at the recent Thomas Cup, and have not been reluctant to express their disappointment. They feel there was hardly any enthusiasm and pride at their creditable achievement and compared the response to the perceived obsession with cricket stars, even those who have an odd good performance in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Satwik recounted how no one recognised or acknowledged them on the seven-hour flight home, even though they were in their Thomas Cup jerseys. There wasn’t any curiosity either. There was no public reception when they returned to the country, as all of them made their own arrangements to get home from the airport. There was a distinct lack of fanfare and public interest.

“Nobody even asked us who we were or what medals we had won. There were so many Indians. We were wearing Thomas Cup jerseys, but everyone was busy with IPL, politics, whatever. It was the same thing when we won gold in 2022. We should have celebrated much more,” Satwik said in a heartfelt monologue.

“People don’t realise these chances might not come again. It’s very tough to win the Thomas Cup; even medalling is difficult. When we landed at the airport, all the players – (HS) Prannoy, (Kidambi) Srikanth, and Dhruv (Kapila) – were just booking cabs. Nobody around seemed to notice. I felt really sad looking around at that airport scene: top athletes trying to book cabs.”

There’s merit in their complaints, and cricket does operate on a different plane when it comes to the mind space of the lay sports fan in this country. In India, there’s cricket on one side and all other sports on another of the proverbial weighing scale, and still the balance will be heavily skewed in favour of the game of the willow and ball.

Satwik-Chirag feel that there was insufficient celebration in the country when India upstaged the traditional powerhouses of badminton – China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Denmark, etc – to win the 2022 Thomas Cup, a tournament they refer to as the World Cup of badminton.’ But what really got their goat was that some ‘fans’ were quick to point fingers at them after the defeats to China and France this time, some even calling them chokers, as if all India needed to do was to land in Horsens, Denmark, and pick up the trophy. The margins at the top level in any sport are so slim that even seemingly little things can have a disproportionate impact on the final result, but not everyone understands that.

Such ‘fans’ are not genuine followers of the sport – any sport, really – and are best ignored. The shuttlers would be the ones most disappointed at a defeat and don’t deserve to be called uncharitable names.

Ground realities

But they also need a reality check. Cricket rules the Indian sporting ecosystem, and it’s not a recent phenomenon. It dominates media space and generates talking points – not always limited to events on the field – much more than any other sport. Satwik-Chirag, or any other sportsperson, need to make peace with that fact. That may be one of the reasons for India returning with only a handful of medals from every Olympics, but that’s the ground reality.

Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is arguably the greatest current Indian sportsperson with an Olympic gold and a silver medal to his name. Rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra is the only other individual Olympic champion produced by this country. Neither of them is likely to be mobbed by casual fans if they are seen on the streets, something which may happen to even a 15-year-old who has made his name in the IPL.

Even chess world champions Viswanathan Anand and D Gukesh would be admired for their achievements rather than treated as celebrities.

But there’s institutional support for athletes in Olympic sports. If one reaches an elite level, one is likely to have their training, developmental, exposure and competition expenses taken care of by initiatives like the Target Olympic Podium Scheme. All that is funded by taxpayers’ money. There are non-governmental organisations like Olympic Gold Quest, Inspire Institute of Sport, GoSports and Reliance who provide the required assistance to athletes. There is the Khelo India scheme at a lower level. These programmes serve a purpose, even if not all the money earmarked is often spent on the heads they are meant for.

Central and state governments hand out awards and cash rewards for exemplary performances, apart from the Arjuna and Khel Ratna honours.

Joy of competition

There may be a lackadaisical attitude among the casual fans, but then public adulation can’t be the primary motive for Satwik-Chirag – or any other sportsperson for that matter – for excelling. That’s not the reason they came into the sport in the first place. That’s only the cherry on the top of the cake. The love of the game and the thrill of competition is the juice that keeps them going.

Also, one can’t fight public opinion and perception. If cricket is, by far, the most popular sport in the country and means more to a bigger proportion of the population, so be it. There’s no use fighting that feeling. It would just be a waste of time.

Instead, it would be more useful in thinking about and appreciating die-hard badminton fans who care deeply about the sport, and support the shuttlers through thick and thin. Their support is much more valuable than that of fair-weather friends whose attention varies with results on court and who can’t, or don’t, understand the fickle nature of sport at the top level. The genuine ones are much smaller in number, but much more passionate.

It’s a free world out there, and if someone doesn’t care about badminton, one can’t force them to. The only way one can hope to change things is to do one’s best on the court and be a good role model. Winning only raises the profile of a sport. The media – both traditional and social – does cover badminton and other non-cricket sports extensively and one can only hope that the penny will drop someday.

Complaining will get one nowhere. Remember, this is a country where broadcasters pay through their nose for IPL broadcasting rights as they are assured of a captive market, while still haggling over the FIFA World Cup telecast with little over three weeks left for the start of the tournament, arguing that not enough people would watch it.

Choose the battles you want to fight wisely.