CHENNAI: Sports at the elite level can be a thankless task sometimes. Some feats sometimes do not get the recognition that it merits. Badminton players are living that harsh reality. The men's team, over the last week or so, played some high-level badminton at Horsens, Denmark to return with a bronze medal at the Thomas Cup, which is considered to be World Team Championships but the feat barely tends to stir the masses.
It was only their second medal after 2022 edition, a landmark year where they had made history by capturing the gold medal. Back home after yet another memorable campaign, HS Prannoy and Chirag Shetty, in a media interaction facilitated by SAI, questioned the lack of recognition.
"The way it should have been celebrated, it didn't get celebrated (the 2022 edition). People who actually follow the sport, who know about the sport, knew how big it was. But the general public didn't really know the magnitude of the result. That sometimes really makes me sad. We're not a sporting nation as yet. Yes, we win medals, a lot of medals but we don't celebrate our athletes the way we should. There's plenty more that we need to do do. There's only little a government can do, which they have been doing. The schemes and everything they have put in place has been terrific. The ecosystem needs to start celebrating sporting achievements," Chirag said.
Adding to the topic in question, Prannoy, one of the senior faces in the team, said the lack of recognition makes it difficult for the players to convince themselves to keep fighting for the top honours in such events.
"Unfortunately, the name of the tournament is Thomas Cup, which the people are not aware that it's a World Cup. Second thing is, once you do it (win) and there's not enough recognition given to that then it is very tough for players to convince every single time to do this because they think, 'what is the value of doing this?'. We're spending almost two to three weeks going out there and trying to build a team, which we're not used to as we are used to playing individual category 99 per cent of the time. 'Why are we doing this?' I think these questions arises when there is not support given from the fans and the media or if the sport is not celebrated. It is very tough for players to do this again and again and again," Prannoy said.