'Badminton Needs to be Promoted as Good as Cricket in India': Chirag Shetty After First Win in Paris Olympics 2024

World number five men’s doubles team Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy began their Olympic Games campaign with a convincing victory in their opening group stage men’s doubles match. The third-seeded men’s doubles duo notched up a 21-17 21-14 win against the French pair of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar in a Group C match. After winning the contest, Shetty made a bold statement, saying that badminton still needed to be promoted as good as the gentlemen’s game – cricket.

In a cricket-crazy nation like India, Badminton has been fighting tooth and nail to gain its share of the limelight. The shuttlers have been making the nation proud with exemplary performances in different corners of the world but badminton is not as popular as cricket and therefore, comparatively underinvested in.

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Shetty said the Indian corporate houses must step up and support sports other than cricket in the country.

“(Badminton) needs to be promoted as good as cricket,” Shetty said, as quoted by Reuters.

“I think we’ve had the performances as well to back it up, but cricket has done that for the past 30-odd years — for us to be on the same level, it will take some time. Corporate houses need to step up and support sports other than cricket in India.

“But I can’t say that it’s not being done. It’s definitely improving, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he added.

Former shuttler and Indian men’s team coach U Vimal Kumar echoed the same emotions, stating that the badminton players of the country are hoping for the Indian government to support other sports as well.

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“The Indian government should identify disciplines like badminton, table tennis, athletics, hockey et cetera, where we are doing well internationally. Identify about 8-10 disciplines and provide tax concessions for the next 10 to 15 years to the corporates who genuinely invest in sports,” Kumar said.

Satwik and Chirag to compete in the next round

The Indian badminton duo will face Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel of Germany in their second match on Monday.

(With Agency Inputs)

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