23 July,2009 07:44 AM IST | | Sanjay Sharma
The current Indian badminton squad (men and women) is the very best across all sporting disciplines in the country as far as world domination and rankings are concerned.
In no other sport do we have a female player (Saina Nehwal) ranked as high as World No 6 an achievement that has come about not just by mere participation in international tournaments and winning a couple of rounds each time but by actually winning titles abroad consistently. Saina recently won the Indonesian World Series title, which is akin to a tennis Grand Slam. This, after having pocketed other top foreign titles like the Philippines and Taipei Open besides the World Junior title in Pune this year.
Men on a mission
Among the men, Chetan Anand is ranked highest at World No 15. He has as many as four teammates for company in the Top 50 besides of course a host of compatriots in the doubles events too (see box).
In no other sporting discipline can India boast of so many highly ranked players on the world stage.
These rankings have come about due to some scintillating performances by our shuttlers. Chetan won titles like the Dutch, Bitburger, Spanish and Czech Opens last year besides being runner-up at the Indian Grand Prix and Belgium Open. In 2007, he won the Cyprus Open too. Meanwhile, World No 45 Anup Sridhar stunned World and Olympic champion Taufiq Hidayat (in the 2007 World Championship) and current World No 2 Peter Gade Christensen last month at the Singapore Open. The tall and lanky Arvind Bhatt (ranked 25th) knocked out two top Danish players World No 4 Kenneth Jonassen in the Malaysian Open and World No 8 Joachim Person in the Hong Kong Super Series.
Some pedigree
Of course, there has been a pedigree aspect in India. Nandu Natekar was unofficially ranked World No 4 after winning the King's Cup in Bangkok in 1954. Dinesh Khanna won the inaugural Asian Championships in 1965.
Prakash Padukone's success made him iconic, while the late Syed Modi and current national coach Pullela Gopichand were ranked 12th and fourth, respectively, after Modi won the 1982 Commonwealth gold and Gopichand clinched the 2001 All-England title. Among the ladies, Ami Ghia was ranked World No 7 and Aparna Popat reached a career best of World No 16.
Traditionally, it has been just one player who held aloft the tri-colour during a period. But today all our shuttlers are feared and walk tall on the circuit.
Says Chetan Anand, "No one takes us lightly now. They know we can match the very best and indeed we have beaten most of the world's best shuttlers in the last three years."
Padukone could not agree more. "We are doing very well but we can do so much better. There is no denying the fact that Indian badminton is on the right track and even in team events we should be able to do much better at the Sudirman Cup this year," said Padukone, who must be credited for bringing about the recent extraordinary change to Indian badminton.
Pro coaching
Having initiated the concept of professional coaching in India, by launching his own academy in Bangalore, Padukone has rolled out a host of champions. Gopichand,u00a0 Popat, Sridhar, Bhatt are some of the gems that have emerged from the Prakash Padukone Academy. Gopichand followed suit and post-retirement set up his own coaching infrastructure. The formidable Saina Nehwal is living proof of the heights a player receiving professional coaching can achieve.
Furthermore, healthy competition between Padukone and Gopichand's academies can only result in more potential world-beaters being nurtured by these two former All England champions. And this in turn could spell more success for Indian badminton.
