Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Badminton has a future in India?' that was published in Newsband

Badminton has a future in India?

Indian Badminton League may turn out to be a smash hit if audiences in our cricket-crazy nation patronize it with anything like the kind of enthusiasm they display in matter of IPL matches. Badminton is hugely popular in many countries and it is hoped that it will gain the same popularity in India too.  

Nandu Natekar, Dinesh Khanna, Prakash Padukone, Syed Modi, Vimal Kumar and P. Gopi Chand were great Indian badminton players of the past who kept the game alive. Their good work is now being carried forward by Saina Nehwal who is the potential world-beater and who can really take this game to unimaginable height in our country by capturing the imagination of young sportspersons in the country. With Saina and P.V. Sindhu already among the world elite, and P. Kashyap showing immense potential, competitive badminton has never had it so good in India.

The Chinese, who swept all gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics, have stayed away from the IBL. But the available depth in the field is still good enough to provide some thrilling and competitive matches for the lovers of the game for just over two weeks.

The success of the league will depend not only on the organisational skills of the Badminton Association of India and its commercial partners, but also on audience turnout at venues and television ratings.

IBL shows promise of changing the future course of Badminton in this country. With viewership and audiences set to rise and many more international players being roped in near future, the game of badminton shows promise of being accepted in a big way by Indians.

The government can also help in promoting the game by coming up with infrastructure and institution building, organizing small tournaments for young players to come up, providing better training facilities, investing heavily using the public-private partnership route and initiative and so on.

India being a cricket frenzied nation, IBL sounds to be a new thing. All the importance is given to cricket but this time with the initiative taken by the sports association to bring in the sport like badminton, they've done a commendable job. At least now we will witness a different game on the Indian grounds and TV screens.

It may or may not prove to be a game changer, but this game deserved to be staged in India especially after our country has produced someone as good as Saina Nehwal. The IBL couldn't have come at a better time. It augurs well for the future of this great sport.

Unlike most other sports like hockey or kabbadi, badminton is played by and is popular amongst the elite and higher middle class people. This fact may push the game of badminton to the new heights in our country.

The Leagues (IPL, IBL and IHL) have put in a lot of money to attract international talents and now it’s time for spectators to match the enthusiasm displayed by the organizers by attending the games in big number.