The India-China rivalry didn’t really take off in badminton – because out of sheer self-assuredness of many generations, Indian shuttlers never quaked at the prospect of facing them. They revelled in every opportunity, lost some, won plenty.
From Prakash Padukone to Pullela Gopichand to Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu to Lakshya Sen, and Satwik-Chirag, they are equipped with skill and strokes to win against the Chinese. Not always, but quite often. Briefly, the Yihan Wang—Saina Nehwal face off threatened to get edgy. Because despite the Chinese being a lopsided and very noisy favourite, and Nehwal defiant during negative results, it didn’t escalate into a billow. Then Sindhu came along and calmly set Yihan aside, and struck up a friendship to kill all squalls or nip all revenge dramas.
But the pressure invariably tends to be on the Chinese — like was witnessed in the second round matches at Malaysia this last week. The Chinese set a lot of store on getting that win. Indians, perennial underdogs and always creative and cerebral with strokes and strategy, do their thing at the net, and are forever sneaking in chances to win. Lakshya Sen will never fear Li Shifeng. Sindhu dismissed most of them, till she didn’t. Indians don’t win all the time, but they don’t wilt. So the rivalry stays at sim, never boiling over.
For multiple extraneous reasons, the real rivalry that is on a constant bubble in badminton, wanting to brim over, is the one with Malaysia. No shared land border, no prior history of an open face-off or cultural adverserials. But it has developed into a badminton tempest, and is causing Indians more than a few headaches.
There have always been the quiet but strident Commonwealth Games team gold battles. As the only two well-rounded badminton squads at CWG, the two have often gone head to head for gold.
Legendary Lee Chong Wei
For the longest, Malaysia ruled the roost. Lee Chong Wei was a legend, with diehard fans of his leaping jump smash silhouette amongst Indians. The world bowed to him, loved him even, so there wasn’t much of an edge. Still, come Gold Coast Games, and Kidambi Srikanth will perhaps call the team gold match he won beating Chong Wei, as one of his finest. Prior to that, Saina Nehwal brought India the individual gold at Delhi in 2010 beating Mew Choo Wong, a match at Siri Fort imprinted with the memory. Losing team gold at Birmingham Games hurts more than the team would let on.
In 2022, things got pretty heated. Malaysia went out in the quarters of Thomas Cup to eventual champs India. It precipitated soul-searchings, coach-firings and all manners of chaos that is close to what happens in Indian cricket.
Social media, meanwhile, was getting sinister, as Indian players started being attacked, with even racist slurs thrown in, mostly directed at Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Men’s doubles had been a Malaysian preserve till a decade ago, but the Indians were the new champs in town — tall, unafraid, aggressive and beating a bunch of Malaysians. It brought out all the unnecessary, xenophobic hysteria and Chirag Shetty copped most of it for his serving routine. He wasn’t aiming for hold-ups, just being meticulous, but they dubbed him ‘Delay King’, and had a field day, taking potshots at everything he did. For most part, he was amused by it all.
But nothing could prepare Indians for the Paris Olympics, where the Malaysians bounced back as a whole.
Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik were masterly in how they shrugged off a bunch of reverses against Satwik-Chirag in Tour finals, to actually steal an endgame win when it really mattered: The Olympics quarterfinal. It was the game style that completely boggled the Indian duo at the crunch, and revealed weaknesses that many others had exploited, but without the glaring spotlight. Aaron-Soh picked bronze eventually, but what cascaded was a curtain of disappointment back in India. Malaysian fans couldn’t stop gloating.
Then Lakshya Sen went down in a medal-or-nothing bronze playoff to Lee Zii Jia, and the Olympic tragedy for India inflicted by Malaysia was complete. The Malays have a proud tradition in badminton, even if flagging in recent years, and their game, even if not as talked up as Indonesians and Chinese, is highly evolved, with several coaches capable of expert strategising. That, the Malaysian brain-trust could out-manouvre Mathias Boe, Pullela Gopichand, Vimal Kumar and Prakash Padukone, chiefly on endgames, throws open a challenge to these coaches for future battles, not to mention the sobering reminders to Satwik-Chirag and Lakshya Sen against Malaysian opponents.
Twitter fan-wars will continue to swirl, but Satwik-Chirag did well this last week to soak in the atmosphere of the local crowd in menacing mode when they played Ong-Teo in quarters. Chirag said he enjoyed playing in front of packed houses of their iconic Axiata Arena, while Satwik joked, he would have the Malaysians on his side in neutral matches.
The players themselves have been professional and not allowed enmity to brew. Aaron Chia, a pocket dynamo, who’s very soft spoken outside the court, happily talks of Masala dosai being his favourite food, and Lee Zii Jia has his fans in India, while Sen remains popular in Malaysia. The rivalry isn’t toxic by any measure. But it’s brewed up one right badminton storm on competing tactics, that makes you bookmark the next time an Indian takes on a Malaysian for sheer pitting of sporting tactics against one another.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
