Seventeen years in the past, Ramcharan Rankireddy was thrilled merely to be contained in the Gachibowli Stadium.
He was a volunteer on the 2009 World Championships in Hyderabad, and his project was to be the bus in-charge for one of many Chinese language groups. It was a memorable bus to be on. 5 medal winners had been travelling in it.
For a younger Indian who was nonetheless watching the very best of the game from the skin, it was a glimpse of a special world. China was the dominant power, and the hole between the established badminton powers and India was nonetheless seen.
In 2026, Ramcharan’s youthful brother, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, is a part of the Indian era anticipated to problem that hierarchy.
The World Championships have returned to India after 17 years. From August 17 to 23, the match will probably be held on the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, with India coming into the occasion with medal hopes throughout a number of disciplines.
The gap between these two World Championships is the story.
Legendary Pullela Gopichand remembers the primary one with an honesty that captures the India of 2009 higher than any medal desk can.
“Again within the day, in 2009, after we had been internet hosting the World Championships, the most important achievement was to host the World Championship itself. We didn’t have a lot expectations about efficiency, and the one hope we had of some cheap efficiency was Saina Nehwal.”
Vimal Kumar remembers the identical match by way of the stands.
“I bear in mind it was in Hyderabad, on the Gachibowli Stadium, as a result of there weren’t any individuals to look at. We did not have any massive names, and more often than not, the stands had been empty,’ Vimal, former chief coach and the co-founder of the Centre for Badminton Excellence in Bengaluru, says.
Saina Nehwal did attain the quarter-finals, which Vimal remembers as the very best achievement for Indian badminton on the time. India didn’t win a medal in Hyderabad.
PV Sindhu was there too, nonetheless a younger woman watching the world’s greatest gamers.
“I used to be a really small woman. I used to return and watch matches from morning till night. We might mess around and watch the matches. At the moment, it was all about seeing so many high gamers; I didn’t realise how severe it was.”
Seventeen years later, she returns to the identical match as a five-time World Championships medallist, a two-time Olympic medallist and one of many gamers India will look to on house soil.
“Now, once I look again, I acquired to expertise the World Championships once more after 17 years in India. The entire journey during the last twenty years has been memorable. I’m hoping to win a medal on house soil.”
The gap between these two World Championships is the story.
THE FIRST BARRIERS
The transformation can’t be measured solely by way of the World Championships. It unfolded throughout the game’s largest levels, with every success making the subsequent one really feel rather less unbelievable.
The primary barrier had been damaged lengthy earlier than Hyderabad. Prakash Padukone gained the All England in 1980, changing into the primary Indian to take action. Twenty-one years later, Pullela Gopichand adopted him.
On the World Championships, nevertheless, India needed to wait. Padukone’s bronze in 1983 remained the nation’s solely medal for 28 years. When the match got here to Hyderabad in 2009, India nonetheless had simply that one medal in its historical past — and left with out including one other.
Two years later, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa ended the wait with bronze in ladies’s doubles.
Then got here the Olympics. Saina Nehwal’s bronze in London in 2012 turned India’s first Olympic badminton medal. Sindhu adopted with silver in Rio in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo in 2021.
And on the World Championships, the trickle turned a stream.
Jwala and Ashwini ended the 28-year wait in 2011. Saina reached the ultimate in 2015, whereas Sindhu started her exceptional run of World Championships medals with silver in 2017. She adopted it with silver in 2018 earlier than changing into India’s first badminton world champion in 2019, the identical 12 months Sai Praneeth gained bronze.
The 2021 version introduced one other landmark in males’s singles, with Kidambi Srikanth profitable silver and a younger Lakshya Sen taking bronze. Sindhu added one other bronze that 12 months. H.S. Prannoy adopted with one other males’s singles bronze in 2023.
In between, males’s doubles lastly started to flourish. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty gained India’s first World Championships medal within the self-discipline in 2022, and added one other bronze in 2025.
The breadth of that change is what stands out.
“Nonetheless, our doubles weren’t that robust at the moment. The boys’s singles was okay; Srikanth was there, and the others had been arising,” Vimal says.
Now, he sees a special image.
“When you take a look at it now, in each occasion, we’re in with an opportunity — in males’s singles, ladies’s singles, males’s doubles and, after all, ladies’s doubles.”
The ladies’s singles pipeline, too, not appears to be like completely depending on the era that got here earlier than. Vimal lists Tanvi Sharma, Devika Sihag, M. Sharani, Ashmita Chaliha, Rakshita Sri, Tanvi Patri, Shaina Manimuthu and Unnati Hooda among the many younger gamers coming by way of.
“There’s a good line of kids approaching nicely,” he says.
“Sindhu being nonetheless on the high, they’re actually wanting as much as her and so they really feel they will make it. That is a plus issue.”
The celebrities had gained medals for themselves. They’d additionally made a profession in badminton look potential to a a lot bigger era.
BUILDING THE BASE
The gamers had been solely a part of the change. Behind them, the infrastructure was slowly being assembled.
When India secured the correct to host the 2009 World Championships, Vimal remembers a number of individuals enjoying their half.
“Dawn Sports activities and Yonex once more helped. They performed a significant position, together with Mr VK Verma. He was the president then.”
He additionally remembers Punch Gunalan, then Secretary Normal of the Asian Badminton Confederation, as an vital supporter of India’s bid.
Gopichand remembers the method from the opposite aspect. By then, he was already teaching, however the World Championships pulled him into a really totally different position.
“As one of many key organizers of the World Championships in 2009, personally it has been one among my largest challenges in administration. I used to be teaching, I used to be wanting funds, I used to be making an attempt to get the infrastructure in place, and likewise had our personal challenges with internet hosting such an enormous occasion.”
There was authorities help to hunt, cash to search out and infrastructure to place in place.
“However very glad that we pulled off an excellent occasion in 2009 to host a World Championships in Hyderabad,” Gopichand says. “And having to work on a number of fronts and with authorities, and looking for funds to host the occasion, I believe was a problem, however was very glad the BWF help was phenomenal.”
He additionally remembers the position performed by the Badminton Affiliation of India below V.Ok. Verma.
“The BAI headed by Mr. V. Ok. Verma was superb, and their help ensured that we had been capable of pull off an occasion of that scale in Hyderabad.”
The match was one factor. The infrastructure round it was one other.
Gopichand was making an attempt to construct one thing that Indian badminton had not often had: a spot the place a proficient youngster might arrive with a racket and, if adequate, keep lengthy sufficient to learn how far the sport might take them.
The academy in Hyderabad, based in 2004, would change into one of many bodily centres of India’s badminton transformation. Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu got here by way of its doorways. So did Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, H.S. Prannoy and Sai Praneeth. These weren’t simply names on a roll of honour; they turned the era that modified what Indian badminton anticipated of itself.
Bengaluru developed its personal teaching ecosystem. Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar and different centres started including to the nation’s badminton map. The expansion was not a couple of single academy or one metropolis. It was changing into a community.
That was vital as a result of India’s badminton increase was by no means going to be sustained by producing one distinctive participant at a time.
It wanted extra youngsters enjoying, extra courts, extra coaches and extra locations the place promising gamers might keep lengthy sufficient to learn how good they may change into.
THE SPORT BECOMES EVERYONE
Vimal believes probably the most vital adjustments was deceptively easy: badminton turned reasonably priced.
“One of many largest issues that occurred to Indian badminton was when that increase was occurring, it was made reasonably priced.”
He had watched tennis change into more and more troublesome for peculiar households to entry.
“The Indian system was additionally very costly as a result of many of the teaching charges and different issues had been simply not reasonably priced for a middle-class or lower-middle-income group.”
Badminton was totally different.
“Badminton, in that manner, made a big impact. It was made reasonably priced.”
He factors to Andhra Pradesh and what was accomplished on the district stage, recalling the position of Punnaiah Chowdary, former CEO of state badminton physique.
“All of the district collectors had been made to play badminton, and so they constructed 23 courts in every district.”
“That popularised it and gave an enormous increase.”
Different states and areas started growing their very own badminton cultures. Maharashtra and Kerala had lengthy produced gamers. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab turned vital components of the rising panorama. Chennai and Bengal had growing exercise, whereas the Northeast started to emerge extra prominently.
“Haryana is one other state I might give loads of credit score to,” Vimal says. “There are loads of gamers arising from Haryana and that aspect, and the Punjab aspect.”
Gopichand noticed the identical enlargement from the highest of the game.
“So far as infrastructure is worried, there’s been large… large enchancment. The personal sector has additionally accomplished very nicely to have a number of badminton courts beginning up in lots of, many areas.”
The federal government was additionally changing into extra concerned in supporting elite athletes and tournaments.
“The help to tournaments from the federal government and SAI has elevated tremendously,” Gopichand says. “In order that’s an enormous push. The Khelo India and the TOPS scheme and the TOPS Growth — I believe these are all very optimistic steps to make sure that an increasing number of individuals take up the game.”
The federation itself has additionally change into a extra substantial a part of the expansion story. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has led the Badminton Affiliation of India since 2017 and was re-elected in 2022, has overseen a interval wherein BAI has expanded its match and improvement footprint. In 2024, the affiliation stated it had greater than 60,000 registered gamers and organised over 35 nationwide and state-level championships and tournaments. In 2025, BAI introduced an annual Rs 9.75 crore plan for grassroots improvement and help to state associations, together with larger grants and prize cash.
The result’s seen within the numbers arriving at junior tournaments.
Vimal says some Underneath-15 and Underneath-17 occasions now obtain 3,000 to 4,000 entries.
“You want not less than 20 courts in a venue to conduct a match since you obtain 3,000 to 4,000 entries, and an equal variety of mother and father additionally come.”
It isn’t a grievance. Not less than, not completely.
“We must always not take that in a detrimental sense,” he says.
“The Badminton Affiliation of India must encourage that pattern, that momentum must be as a result of we ought to be glad that so many are coming ahead.”
That’s the different aspect of India’s badminton increase. The game has grown to the purpose the place its personal recognition is starting to place stress on the system that created it.
“How we will ease issues for them, how we will preserve this enthusiasm — these are the issues we ought to be taking a look at.”
Vimal believes there may be one other piece that should change into greater: company funding.
“I hold telling this to the sponsors, Yonex and others, and likewise to the corporates. The corporates have to become involved in our sport as a result of in any other case, many of the cash is pumped in by the tools producers.”
He believes there may be a lot that non-public funding can nonetheless do for Indian badminton.
“If corporates can take a look at investing in Indian badminton, it could do lots.”
That turns into more and more vital as the game strikes past a handful of elite gamers. Authorities schemes can help the highest finish, tools producers can maintain components of the ecosystem, however the subsequent era wants a wider pool of personal funding round it.
PRICE OF THE BOOM
There’s an irony in that development. Badminton turned standard partly as a result of it was reasonably priced. However as the game has grown, so have the prices of staying in it.
Vimal has seen that change from shut quarters.
“But in addition now, on the similar time, equally now it has change into probably the most costly sport.”
The largest downside, he says, is the shuttlecock.
“When you take a look at the nationwide camps, the AS-50 shuttlecocks that they use, there’s Yonex or no matter it’s, for 12 shuttles, it’s Rs 10,000. So every shuttle prices about Rs 800-900.”
“That could be very, very costly.”
The issue extends past India. Feather shuttles have change into costlier globally as provides of the goose and duck feathers used to make them have tightened, whilst demand for badminton has grown. China, a significant manufacturing hub, has been notably affected.
For a sport making an attempt to convey extra individuals in, it’s an uncomfortable downside: the sport could also be extra accessible than it was 20 years in the past, however the primary object required to play it’s changing into more durable to afford.
A racket doesn’t disappear after a coaching session. A feather shuttle does. Then come footwear, teaching, journey and match bills.
That creates a query that’s changing into more durable to disregard: if badminton’s subsequent part is about producing higher depth, can the game hold that pathway open to the kids who made its development potential within the first place?
Vimal can be seeing the bodily penalties of that recognition. The tournaments are getting greater, however the infrastructure doesn’t all the time have sufficient room to soak up the demand.
That may be a downside India ought to maybe be glad to have. It’s also an issue it has to unravel.
The following step
The enlargement of courts and academies has created alternative. Gopichand believes the subsequent problem is to make the system round these amenities stronger.
“It is time to streamline issues. It’s time to be collaborative. It’s time to construct up a stronger teaching and a sports activities science ecosystem, a pathway which takes care of athletes from the start of their careers or until the top of their careers.”
That may be a totally different problem from the one India confronted in 2009.
Again then, the query was whether or not the nation might create the circumstances for a World Championships, discover the cash, construct the infrastructure and placed on the occasion.
Now the query is whether or not all of the items which have emerged since then can work collectively.
“Having seen the game develop, it’s time to put issues into systematic order and have all events collaborate collectively in a cohesive method.”
The coaches will not be asking for an additional revolution. They’re asking for the prevailing one to change into a system.
DELHI GETS READY
On the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, the physical signs of India’s new ambition are everywhere.
Glass enclosures are being put in at entry factors as a part of a double-door system. Vents have been sealed, wood doorways changed and a non-toxic gel used round ducting to discourage pigeons. Moveable machines that mimic predatory chicken calls present one other layer of defence.
The adjustments come after the India Open on the similar venue, the place pigeons interrupted H.S. Prannoy’s match in opposition to Loh Kean Yew and gamers raised considerations concerning the circumstances.
Now, the seats have been changed, a championship-grade wood flooring is being laid and new lighting put in. Throughout the campus, 80 bathrooms have been modified, 57 of them contained in the indoor stadium.
Greater than Rs 20 crore is being invested within the transformation, in accordance with organisers, with greater than 1,200 professionals concerned.
India hosted the World Championships in 2009. This time, internet hosting is not the achievement. It’s the expectation.
NOT QUITE A POWERHOUSE YET
For all of the progress, Gopichand is cautious about declaring India a badminton superpower.
“India has made vital progress, however sure, we now have China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia — I believe are robust badminton nations, together with Denmark and France in Europe arising very strongly.”
Thailand, too, belongs in that dialog.
India is robust, he says, but it surely wants one other step.
“So I believe we must be one notch up than the place we’re to be persistently referred to as a powerhouse.”
His definition of that subsequent stage is revealing. He needs to see Indian gamers persistently end on the rostrum at Tremendous 750 and Tremendous 1000 occasions, and do it throughout a couple of self-discipline.
“I might like to see Indians in, or I believe the day we’re up there speaking about being a part of Tremendous 1000 and 750 podium finishes persistently in a couple of occasion, I believe that is once I would actually name us a superpower.”
There’s a depth goal, too.
“There’s an enormous bunch of kids who’re enjoying very nicely. I believe to have a good variety of gamers within the high 30 of world badminton — perhaps about 8 to 10 of them to focus on for — is what I might assume India’s potential is.”
It’s an formidable goal. However it’s also a really totally different form of ambition from the one India carried into Hyderabad in 2009.
Again then, Saina was the hope. Now, there are too many names to suit comfortably right into a single sentence. That’s what 17 years have accomplished.
And maybe the easiest way to know the change is to return to the bus.
In 2009, Ramcharan Rankireddy was a volunteer travelling with the Chinese language group. 5 medal winners had been on that bus. He was thrilled merely to be near them.
Seventeen years later, his youthful brother Satwiksairaj is likely one of the Indian gamers anticipated to problem the hierarchy that when appeared so distant.
Gopichand remembers what the primary World Championships meant.
“The largest achievement was to host the World Championship itself.”
That was 2009. In 2026, internet hosting is not the achievement. It’s the expectation that has modified.
The volunteer who as soon as stood beside greatness has a brother who now expects to face amongst it. Maybe there is no such thing as a less complicated measure of how far Indian badminton has come.
– Ends
