Underdogs to Winning Thomas Cup — How Indian Men's Badminton Team Made History

[00:00:00] 15th May was not just any kind of Sunday. It was a historic Sunday for Indian sports as the Indian men's badminton team defeated 14-time winners Indonesia to clinch their first ever Thomas Cup title in Bangkok. Praise is still pouring in for the players who together

[00:00:26] helped India win the prestigious tournament for the first time in its 73-year history. Senior stalwarts Kedami Srikanth and Etch's Pranay remained unbeaten in the tournament despite playing high ranked opponents at times. 20-year-old Lakshya sent fort of a bout of food

[00:00:40] poisoning early in the week to win the first match in Sunday's final against Indonesia. Chirag and Satvik, the magical doubles pair, brought out their best at crunch situations and defeated an Indonesian team comprising only player from the world number one doubles

[00:00:54] team and the second from the number two place team. And from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Olympic gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra to top cricketers like Virat Kohli and VVS Lakshman, this win drew ecstatic reactions from everybody.

[00:01:08] But how did this team achieve this dream against several odds? Our guest in today's episode is sports journalist Abhijeet Kulkarni. We'll also hear from some of the poster boys about what they have to say about their big victory.

[00:01:20] You're tuned in to The Big Story, the podcast where we dissect the headline making news for you. I'm your host, Shorburi. India's ruthless performance at the Thomas Cup has managed to turn many heads in a country

[00:01:38] that is largely obsessed with cricket. Which of course also goes on to show just how big of a deal this victory was. In fact, many people are calling this the quote-unquote 1983 moment for India's badminton. 1983 was the watershed moment when Indian cricket

[00:01:53] team underdogs at that time had stunned the world by winning the World Cup after defeating the mighty West Indies team. And similarly, the Indian badminton team came in as underdogs against 14-time winners in Indonesia who were the most decorated country

[00:02:07] in the Thomas Cup and then went on to destroy them with a 3-in-1 scoreline to earn a historic maiden title. But now let's hear from the men themselves about how they are feeling about this big achievement.

[00:02:18] Let's start with Etchys Pranoy who won two key matches in the quarter and semi-final to ensure India entered their first ever final on Sunday. In a press conference after the win, Pranoy spoke about how going into this edition of the tournament the men knew

[00:02:32] that they together were India's best ever chance to win the title. The way everyone bonded this week I think I should give credits to all the players out there and I think we made a conscious effort to do this because we knew this is not something

[00:02:47] which is very common between us because we play individual events the entire year and to come to a team event and all of a sudden to jail is slightly tough but I think

[00:02:59] we all made that conscious effort. I think the day when we left Hyderabad this was the first talk I think where we had a team discussion saying that this is the time where we can

[00:03:09] win this because we have a team which we can actually challenge for the title. But the only thing which we'll have to consciously do is to help and support each other because that's what is going to change the results in the entire tournament. So I

[00:03:25] think that's what happened. Pranay's selection in fact it also cost a little bit of a stir in April since the qualification criteria required for a player is to be either in the top 15 of the world or win the trials. Instead the badminton association of India

[00:03:40] elected to have him rest and based on his performance in the last few months elected to have him play the third single match ahead of a high ranked Cyprianth and speaking to the media Pranay thanked all those who trusted him.

[00:03:52] I think I've always performed under pressure and I think to be a part of this kind of a team I think I'm really proud of and I think thanks to everyone who had supported

[00:04:04] me for putting me on this team straight away so I think I've given justice at least with my performance this time. From one of the eldest among the young players and Lakshya Sen was the highest ranked Indian in the single standings going into

[00:04:21] the tournament and played the first singles match against all teams which also meant that he faced the best players from the opposing teams. There were a few heartbreaking defeats this week in Bangkok but on Sunday when it mattered

[00:04:32] the most he fought back from a game down to seal the first match for India then there's a double spare of Satvik Sairaj Ranky Reddy and Chirak Shetty they've completed a roller coaster ride in the last couple of years winning big

[00:04:44] titles on the badminton world federation circuit but then also facing injury induced setbacks. The two were without a doubles coach for a stretch of time after the Tokyo Olympics but all those hardships only seemed to make them

[00:04:56] stronger when they fought match points on their way to a victory over the much higher ranked Ehsan Sukamujjo in Sunday's final. After the win Chirak Shetty said that now the aim is to do well in upcoming tournaments.

[00:05:08] Well the target right now is to do well in the upcoming tournaments that are coming up. We'll do well in the upcoming tournaments that are coming up and firstly today it's time to enjoy

[00:05:27] I think today we will just go all out and enjoy and then let's see how it goes there are a lot of super series events that are coming up but definitely some of the great championships are the big events.

[00:05:42] After Lakshya and the doubles pair had worked their magic it was down to single star Kiddami Shrikant to seal the victory. Playing eighth ranked Jonathan Christie Shrikant cruised to a win in straight games through the week Shrikant played

[00:05:55] six matches and won six matches having won several super series titles and even been ranked number one in the world Shrikant said that he ranks this Thomas Cup win as among the biggest in his career.

[00:06:10] Individual events are always different to team events and we hardly get to play any team events so and Thomas and Uber Cup finals are one of the biggest team events that we have

[00:06:23] so you know when you actually end up winning such a big tournament that really is a very big win and it will actually take a while before you actually know what has happened.

[00:06:39] So yeah at the moment I would rate this as one of my biggest events that's for sure and in any major events not just the Thomas Cup but any major event like common man, nation games, Thomas and Uber Cubs, Siddharth Manchukh, World Championships.

[00:06:56] One of these events has been a nice win. It's that event that is sweeter than anything and you know when you win in these tournaments the win is for the country. It is reflected towards the country and when we won today after we won you know people said

[00:07:21] India won Thomas Cup it's not like Shrikant won Thomas Cup or Pranay won Thomas Cup or any other it's India that won the Thomas Cup so that itself is a very special feeling.

[00:07:35] But no matter what it looks like it wasn't easy to win this to talk about how the Indian team won the Thomas Cup against so many odds we have sports journalist Abhijit Kulkarni with us. Firstly I welcome you to this episode of the big story Mr. Abhijit Kulkarni.

[00:07:49] So the first thing I want to talk about is Satvik and Chirag who have pretty much and against all odds kind of story doing they without a coach after the Olympics, moved to Mumbai themselves to train with Mathias Bow who's now with them full time.

[00:08:03] Can you tell us about how their journey over the last few months have been? So I think the Olympics was a big heartbreak for them. The pair was playing really really well in the group stage they defeated the Chinese type of pair

[00:08:21] who went on to win the Olympics but the way the other matches ended up they couldn't qualify for that for the knockout streak of the Olympics and they were really really dejected in a way but these guys then decided to work on their fitness on their skills.

[00:08:41] Though there was no coach both of them were in touch with Mathias Bow and Bow would continue to help them with their training sessions helping them understand things while Chirag would actually design their sessions at the camp with the help of the other coaches.

[00:08:59] So that was a slightly tough period for them. They even decided to not really push themselves initially because for fitness reasons till the India Open where they won their second Super 500 beating former world champions Hendra Sethiya Vananth and Mohamed Aisham.

[00:09:22] The belief had started to come back but tactically they were struggling. They were struggling in the sense that in a tough situation in a match there was nobody to help them out. Mathias Bow has been in India for a long time he has been playing the PBL

[00:09:40] so there was a connection between Chirag and him and the other players also and because Bow keeps coming to Mumbai they were always in touch and once coach Tanki Mhar who was supposed to join the team did not come back

[00:09:56] I think BAI and the players both suggested that we should go with Bow and it really helped these players in the tournament. Picking H.S. Prenoy was a punt made by the selectors he is ranked among the top three Indian single players

[00:10:13] and also didn't win the trails but they still chose to play him based on form in the last few months it could have backfired but the decision seems like what won India the title because he won the key decider match in the quarter and semifinals right?

[00:10:29] I think trials were made that mandatory this time also because of covid not all players are playing and the selectors don't know really what the form of the players is but otherwise I have always believed that the selectors know because and like an individual event

[00:10:51] in a team championship the temperament of the player, the ability to play for the team all these things matter a lot and that is where the selectors come into play understanding who plays when

[00:11:05] and that is why I think given the form Prenoy was the selectors felt that they need to back him because Prenoy is somebody who can win you pressure cooker matches and you needed somebody who could take that pressure in that last match

[00:11:22] when it's a do or die situation. Also the trials because the trials were a long long Prenoy like in four days you had to play about seven eight matches which would have been very demanding on anybody's body

[00:11:36] so I will compliment the selectors and we are taking that call instead of just sticking to the rules saying that we will only take off the team and obviously with the way Prenoy played he has justified that decision of the selectors

[00:11:55] and Lakshya saying he was suffering from food poisoning when he had landed in Bangkok and to recover from that isn't really the easiest thing to do. We saw him struggle a bit in the earlier matches but when it mattered against Indonesia he pulled out his A game

[00:12:15] So like two aspects to it sometimes our top player can say that I am not feeling 100% I won't play but to his credit Lakshya Sen kept on playing because he and the team knew that it was important for Lakshya Sen to play

[00:12:33] because if he had not played then automatically Shrikan has to play the first singles, Pranayana has to play the second singles which actually changes the dynamic of a match. So in that sense Lakshya Sen showed tremendous maturity in still going ahead and playing the first match for India

[00:12:53] and though he lost I don't think he was playing badly. He was playing quite well but yes the after effects of his Kamak infection do show in your overall fitness

[00:13:06] and probably he may not be he was definitely not feeling that well but in the final I think everybody would have been really worried when he lost that first game 21-8

[00:13:19] but instead of bothering about that game he started focusing on what best he can do on the court he was willing to grind it out keep the shuttle in play playing from a better side and it was his opponent who waited and put pressure

[00:13:36] With this win in the kitty hopefully there will be more incredible badminton team matches to watch out for in the future If you like listening to this episode please subscribe to the big story playlist for episodic updates

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