Badminton News: India’s Thomas Cup-winning team won the 2023 Sportsstar Aces People’s Choice Award for National Team of the Year at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai on Monday.
India’s badminton contingent ended a 70-year drought by beating 14-time champions Indonesia 3-0 in the final to record a watershed moment in the sport’s history, perhaps as significant as the triumph of India. India in the Cricket World Cup in 1983.
“Thank you Sportsstar and The Hindu Group for recognizing badminton and our achievements last year. Badminton has had a lot of individual brilliance in the past… But collectively, as a team, I would say this win of the Thomas Cup is the best. We compare him to Kapil Dev and his team’s victory in 1983,” said badminton coach Vimal Kumar.
“Thank you Sportsstar and The Hindu for making this evening so special for me and the whole team. I would say it was a great collective effort by all the team members and we can relate it to the 1983 World Cup,” added Lakshya Sen.
What made the Thomas Cup win all the more remarkable was the fact that Indian badminton was mostly individual-centric and never really prioritized team play.
To create team spirit and bonds, HS Prannoy created a WhatsApp group named “It’s coming home” for 10 players from the team. They met for a team dinner and devised unique methods to boost team spirit, like fining anyone who shows up late to team meetings and using the money after the quarter-finals. to buy drums and horns to amplify the noise in the stadium. This step is clearly a big advantage.
World championship bronze medalist Lakshya Sen beat Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 8-21, 21-17, 21-16 in the first men’s singles to give India a 1-0 lead.
In the first doubles match, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty saved four match points before beating Mohammad Ahsan/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 18-21, 23-21 21-19 to take India’s lead to 2-0 .
World championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth beat Jonatan Christie 21-15 23-21 in back-to-back matches in the second match of the men’s singles as India won their maiden title and became the sixth nation to win the coveted tournament.
India had already reached the semi-finals of the Thomas Cup in 1952, 1955 and 1979. On their way to the title, India beat Malaysia. Denmark and India are the teams with 20 combined Thomas Cup titles between them.
Keywords: Thomas Cup 2022, India, Lakshya Sen
