Srikanth loses, but big gains for Indian badminton

Lin Dan: I have two Olympic golds, six All-England titles and have been crowned World Cup winner five times. What do you have?

Kidambi Srikanth: I have beaten you inside your home at Fuzhou at the 2014 China Open. 

Over an hour later, three points - just three points - separated Srikanth from the man he considers his role model. 

As he lost 18-21 in the third decider game, Srikanth did a Dipa Karmakar by winning millions of Indian hearts. 

The manner in which he fought Lin Dan, who displayed tactical arrogance and a you-get-off-my-court attitude in the first game, Srikanth became a Shahrukh Khan. 

Haar kar jeetne waale ko Baazigar kehte hain.

Srikanth will return home without a medal around his neck but he made the world sit up and take note of this Olympic Games debutant from India. 

And for all those budding badminton players, Srikanth had a message : Even the best Chinese challenge can be pushed and tested. 

That was not the mindset say, a decade and a half ago. One of Saina Nehwal's early coaches, Goverdhan Reddy has this interesting anecdote to relate from the time when she was a 13-year-old. 

"I would make sure I kept Saina away from the senior players who had toured abroad because at that time, the mindset among Indian players was that foreigners, which mostly meant the Chinese since they dominated world badminton, could never be beaten and so all chit-chat would be in that frame of mind. For a newcomer to be told that you will always lose to certain people is not the best grooming," explained Goverdhan Reddy. 

Saina, therefore, grew up with the belief that the Chinese wall can be breached. That even though the Land of the Dragon produces a conveyor belt of world-class players, a Saina vs. China battle is not entirely an unequal game. 

Sindhu's victory in the quarters against London 2012 Olympics silver medallist Wang Yihan and Srikanth's spirited fight against Lin Dan, is a testimony to that belief. 

Younger players like Sindhu and Srikanth have reaped the collateral benefit of seeing Saina beat fancied Chinese players. 

Which is why Sindhu did not give an inch to Wang Yihan. Which is why Srikanth knew that when repeatedly tested with cross court half smashes, even a world player like Lin Dan will find his backhand wanting. 

The world number 3 and his coaches should, in fact, be worried because the 23-year-old Indian shuttler has exposed this weakness in Dan's game, something the Chinese player's semifinal opponent will definitely look to exploit after watching this match's videos.

India's badminton coach Pullela Gopichand always believes in the dictum that a player or a coach learns more from a defeat than a win. The white notebook in Gopi's hand, for sure, will contain a lot of lessons for Srikanth. So that the next time he comes up against Dan, he serves him piping hot Hyderabadi biryani. 

Rewind to June-July 2014 and Srikanth, or for that matter Gopi, would not have thought Rio will happen in the manner in which it did. Srikanth then had contracted a bug for meningitis and collapsed after complaining of a severe headache. Hospitalised for over a week for curing brain fever, his performance in subsequent big ticket events like the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games was unimpressive. Indian badminton seemed in danger of losing a great potential. 

Till China Open happened in November 2014, and Lin Dan was vanquished. The world sat up and took note of this newly-turned non-vegetarian boy from Guntur, who in the best culinary traditions of his native place, served `Super Dan' with badminton of the red hot chillies variety.

Indian badminton has not had a big-ticket men's champion since Prakash Padukone and Gopichand. Though Gopi's success at the All-England championship in 2001 encouraged some youngsters to take to the sport, none of them - Parupalli Kashyap, Srikanth, Guru Saidutt, HS Prannoy - have won a world championship level event. The emergence of Saina and Sindhu has led to more girls wielding the racquet. 

Which is why Srikanth's performance at Rio is such a good augury for Indian badminton. The millions who would have watched his match, would be inspired to allow badminton talent in their families to be tapped. 

Where does Srikanth go from here? While his trajectory on the court is no longer a secret, off the court, this foodie would be looking forward to some tasty masala dosa at his favourite restaurant in Hyderabad. Srikanth would, however, regret that he did not have `Chinese' in Rio.