Sunday, March 27, 2011

Badminton in India

History of Badminton in India
The game of badminton is believed to have been invented in the 1860's by British officers who were stationed at the Indian city of 'Poona' in the 1860's. The game itself was at the time also known as the 'Poona game'. It is said that these officers took the game back with them when they went to England, and it was there that the game was further developed and official rules were framed thus giving birth to the now popular sport of 'badminton'.

Interestingly the city of Pune (where badminton originated) still stands out from other Indian cities, when it comes to producing top notch badminton players for the country. Some of the best Indian women badminton players of today such as Aditi Mutatkar, Trupti Murgunde, Sayali Gokhale, Neha Pandit and Gayatri Vartak all hail from this city.

The game is governed in the country by the 'Badminton Association of India' which is a member of the 'Badminton World Federation' the word's governing body for the sport.

State of the sport in the country
Though Cricket is the no.1 sport in India, the country also has produced some fine badminton players over the years. The most famous amongst the former legendary players from India are Prakash Padukone & Pullela Gopichand. And in the current times Saina Nehwal's outstanding performances at the world level are inspiring a lot of youngsters in India to turn to badminton.

Famous Former Indian badminton players
1. Prakash Padukone - Former world no.1 and England Open champion
2. Pullela Gopichand - Former England Open champion

Famous Current Badminton Players of India
3. Saina Nehwal - Currently ranked No.3 in the world
4. Jwala Gutta - doubles player ranked in world's top 20
5. Ashwini Ponnappa - doubles player ranked in world's top 20

Famous Badminton Coaches and Training Academies in India
1. Gopichand badminton academy, at Hyderabad
2. Tata Padukone badminton academy, at Bangalore, and at Pune.

Know your Indian badminton players.
Several badminton players from the country other than Saina Nehwal, Jwala and Ashwini are also making there mark felt on the international badminton circuit. Men's singles players such as Chetan Anand, Parupalli Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram, Arvind Bhat, Anand Pawar, Anup Shridhar, the men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas have made their presence felt on the international circuit.

Here's a complete list of the best players in India, along-with their BWF (Badminton World Federation) world rankings.
  • List of best Badminton Players of India with World Rankings


  • Recent developments in Indian badminton

    1. The most recent development has been that the 'India Open' tournament that is held in the country which was of a Grand Prix level earlier, has now been given the prestigious Super Series event status by the BWF.

    2. On an experimental level, the Maharashtra Badminton League is getting started from 7th May-2011. This is for the first time, that the players have been auctioned and teams formed in the style of IPL in cricket. If this years MBL works out well, then the league might well expand to include other Indian states in the future.


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