The Indian Badminton League (IBL) showed us something different. It took an individual sport and converted it into a team event, where individual results mattered only if the team did well. So you had a Lee Chong Wei winning all his matches but not getting to feature in the finals. While on first look, you wonder whether it is beneficial that the best players get knocked out, but on closer look the tournament should yield more benefits in the long run.
A couple of prestigious international tournaments in badminton- Thomas Cup and Uber Cup – are team events. So, in that sense, the idea of badminton players representing a team is not new. The key difference though is the fact that in these tournaments, a nationalistic pride is associated with the events as players represent the country. But in the IBL, the players played for franchisees which is a different ball game.
Despite playing for a franchisee, a freewheeling team spirit was on display during the tournament. Until the tournament, one had seen Saina Nehwal only focused on her own performance. It was refreshing to see her cheering and enjoying the success of her teammates. It showed us a different picture of Nehwal and noone’s complaining for sure.
According to Dev Sukumar, author of Touch Play: The Prakash Padukone Story, “Seeing and competing with the likes of Wei, Nehwal will be great learning. Apart from that, the players are also exposed to a different culture of playing badminton with the foreign players and coaches and can pick up a trick or two from there. Not many of them would even imagine playing the semis of the All England but here they are getting a chance to compete against players of that level. So, albeit in a limited manner, the young players will certainly take a lot from the tournament. Results should perhaps be seen in the coming years. ”
Historically too there is evidence that countries that have been doing well in team events such as Thomas Cup have traditionally dominated the entire badminton circuit, China being a good example. Chinese have a stronghold on the Thomas Cup and are the current Champions. If you look at individual rankings as well, Chinese players rule the roost. Badminton lovers need no introduction to Lin Dan, Chen Long and Chen Jin. Denmark which is a traditional non-Asian powerhouse of badminton also focuses on team tournaments at every level.
IBL will help India learn this art of team spirit. And hopefully shore up the performances of individual players from India. There seems to be an underlying co-relation between success at team events and individual performances. One laudable initiative of the IBL is the selection of one U-19 player in each franchisee. This is a move which has shown a long-term vision. This will help the next crop of young players to inculcate a sense of team spirit within them. And that can only augur well for the sport.