Playing sport is one of the best recreational activity as well as fitness option for the people for ages. In India playing sports is an age- old tradition Though in the recent years Cricket has dominated amongst all the sports played in India but with the right kind of exposure and sponsors badminton has now emerged as one of the most popular sports in the country. It is the second most played sports in the country which is managed by Badminton Association of India. The game of badminton can be described as the descendant of battledore and shuttlecock which were played in ancient Greece over 2000 years ago. The modern version of the game has its roots laid in India and the British Army officers posted at Pune, Maharashtra gave badminton its present form in the 19th century. The game was formerly known as Poona.
In 1877, the first club dedicated to the game called the Bath Badminton club was formed and is credited to develop the official set of rules for playing Badminton. In India, the sport is quite popular as Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand both won the All England Open in 1980 and 2001 respectively. Saina Nehwal was ranked first in the world in 2015 and also became the first Indian badminton player to win the Olympic bronze medal in 2012. In 2016 yet another rising star P.V Sandu became the first Indian women to win a silver medal. Among other notable players who made India proud include Syed Modi, Chetan Anand, Aparna Popat, U. Vimal Kumar, Deepankar Bhattacharya, Srikanth Kidambi, Jawala Gutta etc.
Some of the Achievements in Badminton by Indian players
Prakash Nath was the first Indian to enter the final of the All England Badminton championship in 1947
Nandu Natekar was the first Indian to win a title abroad winning Thai and Malaysian tournaments in 1954
Prakash Padukone won All England Championship in 1980. He went on to win the Dutch Open and Hong Kong Open in 1982 while finishing with the bronze at the World Championships in 1983.
Syed Modi had won the Austrian International Open twice in consecutive years (1983-84). He had also won the bronze at the Delhi Asian Games in 1982 and won the Commonwealth Gold in Australia in 1982
U. Vimal Kumar won the French Open in 1983 and 84 and Welsh Open in 1988 and 1991. He closed in on World No. 20 in 1992
Pullela Gopichand won the bronze at Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, and won All England Championship in 2001
Saina Nehwal won Indonesian Open Supersries in 2009, Commonwealth Gold in 2010, Australian Open Superseries in 2014, Indian Open Superseries in 2015, Bronze medal at London Olympics in 2012.
Parupalli Kashyap won gold at Commonwealth games in 2014
P.V Sandhu won World Championship Bronze in 2013, won the Silver medal in 2016 Rio Olympics.