We shall Overcome…

.. One day!

First, it was Gopi’s win in the All Englands! Then Saina’s bronze in London, Sindhu’s twin medals at the Olympics, and some more off-and-on heroics from the men (Srikanth getting to #1, then his silver and Sai Praneeth’s medal in the Worlds). But now the Thomas Cup, the pinnacle of men’s team badminton with Indonesia swept clean in the finals, is just incredible (they also beat the Danes and Malaysians). And that too among the super-powers of Chinese, Japanese, the Danish, the Koreans, and the South East Asian powerhouses of Indonesia and Malaysia in startled attendance.

And these achievements from where?! I remember growing up in the ‘90s reading stories of how Nandu Natekar was great but never got an opportunity; Prakash Padukone (for a brief while) was #1 after a tryst with Morten Frost, and how Syed Modi got more famous for off-court reasons. There weren’t any sponsorships, no contemporary hero to talk about, and we saw Chinese dominance sweeping badminton.

But Gopi’s win and his dedication as a coach was the spark. While there were many toiling hard, he went on to be the world’s best (though for a very fleeting time). But that got the ball rolling away. Still not yet a celebrated sport in the country, but a part of India has almost become a machine in churning out champions: taken young, put through the grind, and unleashed on the world stage. The rewards of global dominance are yet to follow, though they have started trickling in with public sector enterprises taking the lead.

Indian badminton’s rise from nowhere is a story of grit and courage to fight against towering systems against all odds. And the story’s just getting scripted. It symbolizes that if we are in the pursuit of excellence, it does not matter where we start from, who we are pitched against and how high the odds are. If we are at it, we shall overcome one day!

A simple lesson but a difficult one to pull through, and for all of us at OfBusiness, nothing more could serve as an inspiration.

Read more from CEO speaks Column:-
– Never Too Late
– Execution Eats Strategy