Kidambi Srikanth, one of the players who played a key role in the Indian badminton team’s historic victory in the Thomas Cup, hailed it as one of the best achievements of his career.
India won the Thomas Cup for the first time with a 3-0 win over 14-time champions Indonesia in which Srikanth played a key role as he did not suffer a single defeat in the tournament.
“Individual events are always different from team events and we hardly get to play team events and Thomas Cup Finals is a big team tournament,” Srikkanth said in a ‘virtual’ press conference. So winning such a big tournament is a really big moment. It has actually happened, it will take time to realize it.
He said, ‘I would call it one of my biggest wins and I am happy that every player played very well. I don’t think it is an individual victory, it is a victory of all the 10 players, each contributed whenever the need arose.
Srikanth, who won a silver medal at the World Championships in Spain last year, said he cannot compare his victory but it was one of the big wins of his career.
He said, ‘I did well in the World Championship in December also and this was another tournament in which I did well. I can’t compare my victories, I don’t want to rank my victories, they are all important. ,
“It’s definitely one of the big wins, the best of the tournament and one of my best performances,” Srikkanth said.
“Any big tournament, be it Commonwealth Games, Asiad, Thomas and Uber Cup, World Championships, all of them have no prize money. But when you win in these tournaments, it is for the country. After we won, people said that India won the Thomas Cup, it was not a victory for Srikanth or Prannoy, so it is such a special feeling in itself.
Indian men’s badminton team coach Vimal Kumar on Sunday hoped that the historic Thomas Cup win will have the same effect on the game as the 1983 World Cup win on cricket.
Kumar told Bangkok, ‘I don’t have words to describe it. We always had hope, but the way the players played, they did well. It’s been amazing. We had such a bad record against Indonesia and it was wonderful to win 3-0. ,
He said, ‘When India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, the excitement was in sky high, but cricket was always a very popular sport and I hope that now with this performance in badminton, this game will become equally popular. .’
He said, ‘There have always been individual achievements in the game but it was team performance and I hope from now onwards the popularity of the game will only increase from here.’
The coach termed it the biggest achievement of Indian badminton.
He said, ‘I would call it the biggest achievement. Certainly Prakash (Padukone) and Gopi (Pulela Gopichand) winning the All England Championship, (PV) Sindhu winning were all great achievements, but as a team such performances have not come before. When you win a team championship, you call it a victory for the country, so I will term it as the best.
Kumar also said, ‘I am happy that I could see this in my life. It was a dream come true for me.
Sports Minister Anurag Thakur announced an award of Rs 1 crore to the Indian men’s badminton team, which created history by winning the prestigious Thomas Cup title for the first time.
“India’s extraordinary achievement of winning consecutive play-off matches against Malaysia, Denmark and Indonesia deserves relaxation in the rules,” Thakur said in the statement.
“I proudly announce an award of Rs 1 crore to the team that gave Indians happy moments this weekend,” he said.
Thakur had congratulated the players, coaches and support staff of the Indian team for this historic victory.
He said, ‘Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy have won every time they stepped on the court. The doubles pair of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty performed well, scoring significant points in five out of six matches, including three in the knockout stage.
Thakur said, Lakshya Sen showed his spirit by winning the first match against Indonesia. I am sure the men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Gaur Panjala and Priyanshu Rajawat would have benefited immensely by being a part of this historic campaign.
The Sports Ministry said that it has contributed to this unprecedented success by supporting the players to train and play in the competitions.
According to the statement, the 10-week national camp in January helped in improving the fitness level of the players. It was also important to add Mathias Bo as a coach to assist the doubles players.
It said, “In the last four years, the Ministry has spent Rs 67 crore 19 lakh on training and participation in competitions of Indian badminton players, which includes salaries of foreign and Indian coaches.”
According to the statement, ‘Last year, the ministry has borne the expenses of participation of players in 14 international tournaments, on which Rs 4 crore 50 lakh has been spent.’
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