Hyderabad: Coach Vimal Kumar didn't shy away from designating India's win at the Thomas Cup as the "biggest achievement" the country has seen.
Even bigger than PV Sindhu's feat and Prakash Padukone's achievement at the All England Championships?
"All those victories are very special, but this one, as a team, I would rate this as the biggest," he told ETV Bharat over the telephone.
Kumar, the manager of the victorious Indian team in the Thomas Cup in Bangkok, even went on comparing Kapil Dev's heroics to that of Kidambi Srikanth's contribution for the team.
The former international, in a chat with this website, explained what the maiden Thomas Cup title win against 14-time champions Indonesia beckons for the sport that he hopes "gets its due".
Read: EXCLUSIVE: I am proud of the team, says Gopichand after India's historic feat at Thomas Cup
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What a comeback by @lakshya_sen including this crazy point 👀 He takes 🇮🇳 to a 1️⃣-0️⃣ lead.
— BWF (@bwfmedia) May 15, 2022 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Follow LIVE: https://t.co/eLgY44YZE9#ThomasUberCups #Bangkok2022 pic.twitter.com/XsCnanIxvh
">What a comeback by @lakshya_sen including this crazy point 👀 He takes 🇮🇳 to a 1️⃣-0️⃣ lead.
— BWF (@bwfmedia) May 15, 2022
Follow LIVE: https://t.co/eLgY44YZE9#ThomasUberCups #Bangkok2022 pic.twitter.com/XsCnanIxvhWhat a comeback by @lakshya_sen including this crazy point 👀 He takes 🇮🇳 to a 1️⃣-0️⃣ lead.
— BWF (@bwfmedia) May 15, 2022
Follow LIVE: https://t.co/eLgY44YZE9#ThomasUberCups #Bangkok2022 pic.twitter.com/XsCnanIxvh
Excerpts:
Q. How special is this victory? And how massive a boost is this to badminton?
A. This win is very special. Winning Thomas Cup in badminton is equivalent to winning Davis Cup in tennis or a World Cup in cricket. Sometimes people don't understand the enormity of wins. But I hope badminton will get its due now. This win take many youngsters into the sport and we can get better. I want badminton to happen again and things should come up for the sport.
Q. Even bigger than Sindhu Olympic victories and Prakash Padukone's at All England Championships?
A. All those victories are very special, but this one, as a team, I would rate this as the biggest. Sindhu winning World Championship, Prakash at the All England Championship are good but for a team to win is very special.
Q. Your student Lakshya Sen has been in stupendous form in the past few tournaments. How do you see his performance in a tournament where he was down with health issues but still managed to come out on top?
A. In the team's championships, the senior players play a very major role. If you look at Lakshya... Srikanth and Prannoy, they are the oldest in the Indian badminton team. They are 29 and 28 years old. But the rest of the players are all below 23. These seniors really motivated the youngsters, and that's a big plus that has happened. That is one of the reasons why we did well.
Q. How will this win provide impetus to the sport that has seen growth in the past decade?
A. In 1983, cricket became popular, and what BCCI did at that time? Many associations can learn from it. They brought in more professionalism into the management. That is something we need. It can help badminton. We still have some way to go to be on par with cricket but it can happen. If you look at 1983 achievements, it is still being highlighted by the BCCI. We talk about the World Cup where Kapil Dev scored 175 runs not out against Zimbabwe. I was in college at that time. I still remember that. We were 5 down for 17 and that was our score and from there we won the match. Everybody said the team led by Kapil Dev won the World Cup and now we can say the same for Srikanth for the achievement at the Thomas Cup.
