The date was 27 August 2017 when badminton, for a change, managed to grab the nation's eyeballs.
This was in spite of a one-day cricket match being played between India and Sri Lanka in Pallekele.
It was the BWF World Championships in Glasgow and in the women's singles final, PV Sindhu faced Japanese powerhouse Nozomi Okuhara.
The match would go down to the wire, with Okuhara getting the better of the Indian stalwart 21-19, 20-22, 22-20 win. Despite Sindhu's loss, she won millions of hearts, and the silver medal. Thousands watched the match live as the two players ran each other ragged on the court in pulsating, lung-bursting rallies.
It would not just be Sindhu to win a medal on that day, but Saina Nehwal grabbed a bronze, too, by finishing third.
Viewers would soon revert to cricket, but on that day, badminton scored an important point. It could actually draw enough viewers to at least briefly threaten cricket.
Cricket is undeniably India's number one game from every angle. It is far more popular and lucrative than other sports.
Badminton, on the other hand, experiences success in blips.
Also, badminton is an individual sport. Individual sports have a niche appeal compared to team sports, which excite the masses. There are fewer names to remember, whereas in a team sport, there are many players from a single team who become household names.
Still, badminton is doing well and has the ingredients to become bigger in India. It is TV-friendly, Indians do well on the international stage, and the game can be played recreationally as well. Every Indian has played some form of badminton on the street or using the building gate as the net.
The Olympic medals of Nehwal and Sindhu, the men’s team’s Thomas Cup victory and the overall performances of players like HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth, to name a few, have brought the sport credibility. Moreover, Indian badminton’s beacon, Pullela Gopichand, is a man of achievement and integrity, and that goes a long way in the growth and reputation of the sport.
It’s just that cricket is overwhelmingly popular and bigger. Even the match-fixing scandal could not derail its popularity. For a while people were upset, but they started flocking to the grounds soon after. Credit where due, the Indian team also won a great deal after the match-fixing years, when the Sourav Ganguly era started, and with it, a new phase for Indian cricket.
Parallely, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the game’s administration took serious measures to keep the sport as clean as possible.
Then came Twenty20, which made cricket even more popular. India won the first ever World T20 in 2007, under the captaincy of a young Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and the format became a sensation. Then the IPL was launched in 2008, and cricket’s hold on the Indian audience strengthened. Earlier there was only the Indian team to support. With the IPL, there were eight to ten new franchises to root for.
But there is no question that badminton, along with football and hockey, has emerged as India’s most loved sport after cricket.
The success of Indian shuttlers in international events helped Badminton Association of India (BAI) explore new sponsorship opportunities.
Yonex pooled in Rs 100 crore to sponsor the sport in the country for the 2018-2022 period.
Vikram Dhar, Yonex Sunrise Sport country manager at the time, said, "We have always been part of the development of badminton in India. The previous deal for four years was for approximately Rs 50 crore. We also have tie-ups all across India with various academies, state associations and players. We feel that the growth in the sports market and badminton will enhance the game's development in the country."
Navendu Jain of Enkay India Rubber Ltd, who was in charge of distribution of Adidas in India, said in 2013 that badminton had the potential to “surpass cricket and football in the country”. That was excessive, but the statement shows the bullishness around Indian badminton for over a decade.
Sports sponsorship in India is witnessing a gradual rise, with the market expected to reach US$ 6,054 million by 2024. And a good chunk of it is likely to go the way of badminton.
The likes of Sindhu and Nehwal are extremely wealthy today. Sindhu was No. 12 on the 2022 Forbes list of highest earning female athletes with an income of Rs 58 cr for the year. When a sport pays well, it attracts more players to it, and that improves the country’s chances of doing well.
With the Asian Games coming up later this year and the Olympics next year, badminton will be under sharp focus.
However, the popularity of cricket is a different topic altogether. It is pointless to get into a competition. Badminton is scripting its own journey, and it is doing that very well.
