In the past, we have had our badminton players win Olympic medals and also world championship titles. And now we find that our players have made history by winning the Thomas Cup which has been dominated by the Indonesians and Chinese players for so long. A brilliant 3-0 final score had the Indian men defeating the Indonesians.
The 2022 tournament has been the 32nd edition of the Thomas Cup and this year it was held in Bangkok, Thailand.
Indonesia were defending champions for the men and China for the women's team (Uber Cup).
The Indonesians are the most successful team ever in the Thomas Cup and the Indian men beat them 3-0 in a masterful performance.
Congratulations poured in from other Indian athletes as this is indeed a proud moment for Indian sport.
In India we may have heard of the Davis Cup (tennis tournament) but probably were unfamiliar with the Thomas Cup. With this historic win however, this was the top social media trend.
This is the first time that the Indians have reached the finals though we came close in 1950.
Kidambi Srikanth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy – these are names to remember. These are the men who gave a whole country cause for cheer.
Indonesia has been like a colossus, dominating this tournament for decades. This time they had to step aside for the Indians.
This Indian win was unexpected – for spectators, though not for the Indian players who had meticulously planned for it; deliberately and consistently worked towards it.
While Indonesia has won the most times (14), China follows with 10 and Malaysia follows with 5 wins. Japan and Denmark have won once each.
The men's badminton coach hopes that badminton will now become as popular as cricket with this win catapulting the sport into the limelight. We were also underdogs without a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the world cup in 1983, especially that final against the mighty West Indians. With this edition of the Thomas Cup as well, Indian shuttlers were the underdogs and few punters were backing these particular horses. The fact that they came out all guns blazing has to be inspirational for a lot of other would-be young athletes out there. Maybe cricket can take a backseat for a bit?
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