Parupalli Kashyap

Has Indian men’s badminton started to peak and prosper?

Kidambi Srikanth,Parupalli Kashyap,Haseena Sunil Kumar Prannoy,Ajay Jayaram,Sai Praneeth Bhamidipati, Anand Pawar,Rajah Menuri Venkata Gurusaidutt,Manu Attri, B. Sumeeth Reddy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar.

Who are these guys, really?

These young stalwarts are the modern face of Indian men’s badminton making the country proud in Badminton World Federation (BWF) competitions across the globe.

These are the players ranked in the top 100 of men’s singles and doubles by the BWF.

Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap are at the forefront of this brigade.

Pictograms of Olympic sports – Badminton. This is unofficial sample picture. Images of official Olympic pictograms for 1948 Summer Olympics and all Summer Olympics since 1964 can be found in corresponding Official Reports. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: kashyap is a indian badminton player (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kashyap has been around for a while and captured gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. He was also a quarter-finalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He is ranked 10 in the world.

Kidambi Srikanth is the highest ranked Indian currently No.3 in the world. He clinched the 2014 China Open Super Series Premier beating Lin Dan in the final. He is the first Indian male to win a Super Series Premier title.

Haseena Sunil Kumar Prannoy is ranked 12th in the World and had his best year by far in 2014. He was a semi-finalist at India Open Grand Prix Gold,Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold,Macau Open Grand Prix Gold and the Sri Lanka Open International Badminton Challenge in Colombo. He was also a finalist at the Vietnam Open Grand Prix crowning it with a tournament win at the Indonesia Open Grand Prix Gold.

Ajay Jayaram is next on the list at 32 and his best is the 2014 Dutch Open Grand Prix.

Following closely at No. 33 is B. Sai Praneeth whose exploits at the US Open last week catapulted him to the limelight.

RMV Guru Saidutt and Anand Pawar at 44 and 55  round up the Indian men in the top 100.

Pairs Manu Attri & B. Sumeeth Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra & Akshay Dewalkar are ranked 24 and 33 in men’s doubles respectively.

Tournaments organised by the BWF are ranked in the following order:

World Ranking Points Table

*At the Olympic Games 3rd place will receive 9200 points. Fourth place will receive 8400 points.

Source: http://bwfbadminton.org

Only the best 10 results are considered while aggregating points.

Women players such as Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and even Jwala Gutta have monopolized the headlines with their stunning deeds. But Force Men will not be left behind.

Indian badminton fans can look forward to having another All-England champion , if not, a numero uno from amongst the above.

Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Parupalli Kashyap: Asthma, inhalers and Commonwealth gold

Parupalli Kashyap is the latest male star to bedazzle the Indian badminton circuit.

The Hyderabadi pulled off a minor miracle when he beat Singapore’s Derek Wong to clinch India’s first ever Commonwealth games gold medal in badminton in 32 years. Kashyap trains under Pulella Gopichand, a former All England champion, in his hometown.

Kashyap is in distinguished company. Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi are the only other Indians to have accomplished the said feat.

For the 27-year-old, public recognition may

English: kashyap is a indian badminton player (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

have finally arrived. Indian Men’s badminton, in recent times, has been overshadowed by the exploits of Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Jwala Gutta, their female counterparts.

Kashyap might just be the man to continue Gopichand’s legacy.

The Padma Bhushan awardee won the All England championship in 2001 but knee injuries cut short his promising career in its prime.

At the 2012 London Olympics, Kashyap reached the quarter-finals only to lose to top seed Lee Chong Wei.

Very few are aware that Kashyap is asthmatic.

Morten Frost of Denmark was another badminton great who suffered from asthma.

The lanky Indian athlete has to renew his TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) certificate from WADA every year.

Kashyap was diagnosed with the chest ailment in 2005. It almost brought his fledgling career to a standstill.

But the fighter in Kashyap came to the fore.

He says:

“It was a big shock for me. Many thought my career was over. But I was determined to fight back and put in a lot of hard work to overcome the disorder.”

He adds:

“It used to be very, very bad. I used to be sick at every tournament. I had to keep taking antibiotics and I would feel ill all the time.”

Once his condition was diagnosed, the shuttler went from strength to strength.

Kashyap says:

“Before 2005, nobody told me my condition was asthma. But once it was diagnosed and I started the right medication, I grew quickly in strength. I could eat well and I got healthy. I’m still asthmatic and I take medication once a day, but I’m fine otherwise.”

Kashyap carries an inhaler (or two) on court for every game and does extra endurance work.

On asthmatics and sport:

“Basically, asthmatics have to keep on working on endurance. You can’t build it up and stop working on it for a while, like the others. My endurance goes down if I don’t work on it. So I do endurance workouts even during tournaments, when other players don’t.”

At the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth games, Kashyap had clinched bronze defeating compatriot Chetan Anand, perhaps now better known as Jwala Gutta’s ex.

Kashyap was awarded the Arjuna award in 2012.

A little-known fact  on Indian men’s badminton: India has more players in the top 100 than any other nation.

Kashyap says:

“That’s a great achievement. But if you want to consistently be in the top 10 or have a number of players winning big titles that is tougher. We have very good bench strength now in men’s singles especially. But going ahead and winning big titles, you need a ten-fold investment.”

Kashyap believes that if he works hard enough he can meet the levels of Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei, the current top two in the game.

Kashyap’s journey to the top has just begun. Let us hope for many more medals from the young man lighting up an Indian future in the Chinese-dominated sport.