Shuttle talk underlines the health of Indian sports

The Hindu

21-04-2025

It was an evening of lively conversation on Indian sports, triggered by the discussion on the 'Shuttlers of Bharat', the stories in the book Net Flicks, authored by Vijay Lokapally and Akshay Lokapally.
In the nice ambience of the Aerocity, the president (sports) of GMR Group, PKSV Sagar, assured that the company was keen to nurture sports beyond cricket, and revealed that a lively Rugby League was ready to unfold with the best players from around the world from June 1 to 15.
'We are interested to grow sports', said Sagar, even as he recalled reading the cricket reports of Vijay, and expressing his keenness to read the book on badminton.
The Lokapallys recalled the fascinating journeys that they undertook to meet the badminton players, coaches, and others related to the sport, across the country, in putting together the book as a tribute not only to the stars of the past, but also to the splendid growth the game has shown in the last decade.
'Sunil Gavaskar watched Prakash Padukone whenever he could, but he always made it a point to have sessions with Nandu Natekar, as badminton helped his cricket, with foot work and stamina,' said Vijay as he gave an insight into the bond that the top sportspersons shared across disciplines in a different era.
'We used to have one badminton court for the whole district, that too in cement. Now we have 10 badminton academies in Uttarakhand. The game has really grown with good coaching and infrastructure,' said the former DGP of Uttarakhand, and now the Vice Chancellor of Haryana Sports University, Ashok Kumar.
Vijay paid rich tributes to coaches Md. Arif and Gopi Chand for the tremendous growth of the game across the country, and pointed out that they stressed on education for overall development of the player.
'If we get to host the Olympics in 2036, our target would be 70 medals. For Haryana, our target is 36. We need to diversify and focus on all the medals that Olympics offers', said Ashok Kumar.
Expressing gratitude to the badminton fraternity, Akshay said that all the people that the authors spoke to, were 'genuine, welcoming and very happy to share their experience. They are all connected and have great camaraderie'.
Mohit Gupta of Frob (Friends of Books), engaged the authors and the special guests in a nice conversation, to make it a memorable evening for everyone present, underlining the point that the book was treasure trove of Indian badminton.