Hyderabad: Olympic medalist and veteran Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal asserted that games like badminton, tennis, basketball and other sports are more tougher physically than cricket.
Sports like badminton and tennis are played until the result comes out, while a cricket match is supposed to be concluded at a certain time irrespective of the result. In cricket, at least nine players don't take part in the match when their side bats while shuttlers and tennis players continue to play until the match is over.
"If you see, badminton, basketball, tennis, and of course other sports are so tough physically. You don't even have time to pick up the shuttle serve, you're like 20 seconds of running, and you're just breathing so hard. A game like cricket gets the kind of attention where I think personal skills are more important than stamina or agility. That game (cricket) gets so much attention and why not other sports?" Saina said on the Nikhil Simha podcast.
"The other sports are so tough. Imagine players getting injured every second day, then performing. You don't know Satwik (Rankireddy), and Chirag (Shetty), who won the Thailand Open, every day they have issues here and there, putting tapes and playing and winning for the country. These kinds of athletes should be celebrated like the cricketers as well," she added.
She also noted that even if she says anything bad about cricket, the game will stay where it is currently in India, and people will still love the sport.
"Even if I say bad things about cricket, cricket will be there, because it is loved by everyone. I love it, but you have to also give that kind of attention to other sports, otherwise, how will India become a sporting nation and how will we compete to beat China to win 60 Olympic medals? There's no way, it will always be cricket."
Nehwal is the first Indian shuttler to win an Olympic medal. She won the bronze medal in the 2012 London Games in women's singles. She was also the first Indian female to attain the number-one ranking in the sport.
Nehwal mentioned that why everyone knows other sports athletes because they have done and been performing consistently at the international level. She also said that it feels like a dream to win a medal for a country where there is no sporting culture.
"In a country like India doing something in a sport which is not even known to anyone, that was extraordinary what I felt, to put badminton in that thing where every girl wants to play badminton. Everyone wants to know Saina (Nehwal), Vinesh Phogat, Mirabai Chanu and Neeraj Chopra, why? because we have consistently performed and been in the news and that's why people know us right?" quipped Nehwal.
"I feel that it's like a dream to say 'Ohh we did it in India'. Because we don't have a culture of sports here," she said.
