17 years on, the badminton World Championships return to a different India

Seventeen years ago, Ramcharan Rankireddy was thrilled simply to be inside the Gachibowli Stadium.

He was a volunteer at the 2009 World Championships in Hyderabad, and his assignment was to be the bus in-charge for one of the Chinese teams. It was a memorable bus to be on. Five medal winners were travelling in it.

For a young Indian who was still watching the best of the sport from the outside, it was a glimpse of a different world. China was the dominant force, and the gap between the established badminton powers and India was still visible.

In 2026, Ramcharan’s younger brother, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, is part of the Indian generation expected to challenge that hierarchy.

The World Championships have returned to India after 17 years. From August 17 to 23, the tournament will be held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, with India entering the event with medal hopes across multiple disciplines.

The distance between those two World Championships is the story.

Legendary Pullela Gopichand remembers the first one with an honesty that captures the India of 2009 better than any medal table can.

“Back in the day, in 2009, when we were hosting the World Championships, the biggest achievement was to host the World Championship itself. We did not have much expectations about performance, and the only hope we had of some reasonable performance was Saina Nehwal.”

Vimal Kumar remembers the same tournament through the stands.

“I remember it was in Hyderabad, at the Gachibowli Stadium, because there weren’t any people to watch. We didn’t have any big names, and most of the time, the stands were empty,’ Vimal, former chief coach and the co-founder of the Centre for Badminton Excellence in Bengaluru, says.

Saina Nehwal did reach the quarter-finals, which Vimal remembers as the best achievement for Indian badminton at the time. India did not win a medal in Hyderabad.

PV Sindhu was there too, still a young girl watching the world’s best players.

“I was a very small girl. I used to come and watch matches from morning until evening. We would play around and watch the matches. At that time, it was all about seeing so many top players; I didn’t realise how serious it was.”

Seventeen years later, she returns to the same tournament as a five-time World Championships medallist, a two-time Olympic medallist and one of the players India will look to on home soil.

“Now, when I look back, I got to experience the World Championships again after 17 years in India. The whole journey over the last two decades has been memorable. I’m hoping to win a medal on home soil.”

The distance between those two World Championships is the story.

THE FIRST BARRIERS

The transformation cannot be measured only through the World Championships. It unfolded across the sport’s biggest stages, with each success making the next one feel a little less improbable.

The first barrier had been broken long before Hyderabad. Prakash Padukone won the All England in 1980, becoming the first Indian to do so. Twenty-one years later, Pullela Gopichand followed him.

At the World Championships, however, India had to wait. Padukone’s bronze in 1983 remained the country’s only medal for 28 years. When the tournament came to Hyderabad in 2009, India still had just that one medal in its history — and left without adding another.

Two years later, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa ended the wait with bronze in women’s doubles.

Then came the Olympics. Saina Nehwal’s bronze in London in 2012 became India’s first Olympic badminton medal. Sindhu followed with silver in Rio in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo in 2021.

And at the World Championships, the trickle became a stream.

Jwala and Ashwini ended the 28-year wait in 2011. Saina reached the final in 2015, while Sindhu began her remarkable run of World Championships medals with silver in 2017. She followed it with silver in 2018 before becoming India’s first badminton world champion in 2019, the same year Sai Praneeth won bronze.

The 2021 edition brought another landmark in men’s singles, with Kidambi Srikanth winning silver and a young Lakshya Sen taking bronze. Sindhu added another bronze that year. H.S. Prannoy followed with another men’s singles bronze in 2023.

In between, men’s doubles finally began to flourish. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won India’s first World Championships medal in the discipline in 2022, and added another bronze in 2025.

The breadth of that change is what stands out.

“Still, our doubles weren’t that strong at that time. The men’s singles was okay; Srikanth was there, and the others were coming up,” Vimal says.

Now, he sees a different picture.

“If you look at it now, in every event, we are in with a chance — in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and, of course, women’s doubles.”

The women’s singles pipeline, too, no longer looks entirely dependent on the generation that came before. Vimal lists Tanvi Sharma, Devika Sihag, M. Sharani, Ashmita Chaliha, Rakshita Sri, Tanvi Patri, Shaina Manimuthu and Unnati Hooda among the young players coming through.

“There is a good line of youngsters coming on well,” he says.

“Sindhu being still at the top, they are really looking up to her and they feel they can make it. That’s a plus factor.”

The stars had won medals for themselves. They had also made a career in badminton look possible to a much larger generation.

BUILDING THE BASE

The players were only part of the change. Behind them, the infrastructure was slowly being assembled.

When India secured the right to host the 2009 World Championships, Vimal remembers several people playing their part.

“Sunrise Sports and Yonex again helped. They played a major role, along with Mr VK Verma. He was the president then.”

He also remembers Punch Gunalan, then Secretary General of the Asian Badminton Confederation, as an important supporter of India’s bid.

Gopichand remembers the process from the other side. By then, he was already coaching, but the World Championships pulled him into a very different role.

“As one of the key organizers of the World Championships in 2009, personally it has been one of my biggest challenges in administration. I was coaching, I was wanting funds, I was trying to get the infrastructure in place, and also had our own challenges with hosting such a big event.”

There was government support to seek, money to find and infrastructure to put in place.

“But very happy that we pulled off a very good event in 2009 to host a World Championships in Hyderabad,” Gopichand says. “And having to work on multiple fronts and with government, and trying to find finances to host the event, I think was a challenge, but was very happy the BWF support was phenomenal.”

He also remembers the role played by the Badminton Association of India under V.K. Verma.

“The BAI headed by Mr. V. K. Verma was very good, and their support ensured that we were able to pull off an event of that scale in Hyderabad.”

The tournament was one thing. The infrastructure around it was another.

Gopichand was trying to build something that Indian badminton had rarely had: a place where a talented child could arrive with a racket and, if good enough, stay long enough to find out how far the game could take them.

The academy in Hyderabad, founded in 2004, would become one of the physical centres of India’s badminton transformation. Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu came through its doors. So did Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, H.S. Prannoy and Sai Praneeth. These were not just names on a roll of honour; they became the generation that changed what Indian badminton expected of itself.

Bengaluru developed its own coaching ecosystem. Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar and other centres began adding to the country’s badminton map. The growth was no longer about a single academy or one city. It was becoming a network.

That was important because India’s badminton boom was never going to be sustained by producing one exceptional player at a time.

It needed more children playing, more courts, more coaches and more places where promising players could stay long enough to find out how good they could become.

THE SPORT BECOMES EVERYONE

Vimal believes one of the most important changes was deceptively simple: badminton became affordable.

“One of the biggest things that happened to Indian badminton was when that boom was happening, it was made affordable.”

He had watched tennis become increasingly difficult for ordinary families to access.

“The Indian system was also very expensive because most of the coaching fees and other things were just not affordable for a middle-class or lower-middle-income group.”

Badminton was different.

“Badminton, in that way, made a huge impact. It was made affordable.”

He points to Andhra Pradesh and what was done at the district level, recalling the role of Punnaiah Chowdary, former CEO of state badminton body.

“All the district collectors were made to play badminton, and they built 23 courts in each district.”

“That popularised it and gave a big boost.”

Other states and regions began developing their own badminton cultures. Maharashtra and Kerala had long produced players. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab became important parts of the growing landscape. Chennai and Bengal had increasing activity, while the Northeast began to emerge more prominently.

“Haryana is another state I would give a lot of credit to,” Vimal says. “There are a lot of players coming up from Haryana and that side, and the Punjab side.”

Gopichand saw the same expansion from the top of the sport.

“As far as infrastructure is concerned, there’s been huge… huge improvement. The private sector has also done very well to have lots of badminton courts starting up in many, many areas.”

The government was also becoming more involved in supporting elite athletes and tournaments.

“The support to tournaments from the government and SAI has increased tremendously,” Gopichand says. “So that’s a big push. The Khelo India and the TOPS scheme and the TOPS Development — I think these are all very positive steps to ensure that more and more people take up the sport.”

The federation itself has also become a more substantial part of the growth story. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has led the Badminton Association of India since 2017 and was re-elected in 2022, has overseen a period in which BAI has expanded its tournament and development footprint. In 2024, the association said it had more than 60,000 registered players and organised over 35 national and state-level championships and tournaments. In 2025, BAI announced an annual Rs 9.75 crore plan for grassroots development and support to state associations, along with higher grants and prize money.

The result is visible in the numbers arriving at junior tournaments.

Vimal says some Under-15 and Under-17 events now receive 3,000 to 4,000 entries.

“You need at least 20 courts in a venue to conduct a tournament because you receive 3,000 to 4,000 entries, and an equal number of parents also come.”

It is not a complaint. At least, not entirely.

“We should not take that in a negative sense,” he says.

“The Badminton Association of India needs to encourage that trend, that momentum needs to be because we should be happy that so many are coming forward.”

That is the other side of India’s badminton boom. The sport has grown to the point where its own popularity is beginning to put pressure on the system that created it.

“How we can ease things for them, how we can maintain this enthusiasm — those are the things we should be looking at.”

Vimal believes there is another piece that needs to become bigger: corporate investment.

“I keep telling this to the sponsors, Yonex and others, and also to the corporates. The corporates need to get involved in our sport because otherwise, most of the money is pumped in by the equipment manufacturers.”

He believes there is plenty that private investment can still do for Indian badminton.

“If corporates can look at investing in Indian badminton, it can do a lot.”

That becomes increasingly important as the sport moves beyond a handful of elite players. Government schemes can support the top end, equipment manufacturers can sustain parts of the ecosystem, but the next generation needs a wider pool of private investment around it.

PRICE OF THE BOOM

There is an irony in that growth. Badminton became popular partly because it was affordable. But as the sport has grown, so have the costs of staying in it.

Vimal has seen that change from close quarters.

“But also now, at the same time, equally now it has become one of the most expensive sport.”

The biggest problem, he says, is the shuttlecock.

“If you look at the national camps, the AS-50 shuttlecocks that they use, there’s Yonex or whatever it is, for 12 shuttles, it is Rs 10,000. So each shuttle costs about Rs 800-900.”

“That is very, very expensive.”

The problem extends beyond India. Feather shuttles have become more expensive globally as supplies of the goose and duck feathers used to make them have tightened, even as demand for badminton has grown. China, a major manufacturing hub, has been particularly affected.

For a sport trying to bring more people in, it is an uncomfortable problem: the game may be more accessible than it was 20 years ago, but the basic object required to play it is becoming harder to afford.

A racket does not disappear after a training session. A feather shuttle does. Then come shoes, coaching, travel and tournament expenses.

That creates a question that is becoming harder to ignore: if badminton’s next phase is about producing greater depth, can the sport keep that pathway open to the children who made its growth possible in the first place?

Vimal is also seeing the physical consequences of that popularity. The tournaments are getting bigger, but the infrastructure does not always have enough room to absorb the demand.

That is a problem India should perhaps be happy to have. It is also a problem it has to solve.

The next step

The expansion of courts and academies has created opportunity. Gopichand believes the next challenge is to make the system around those facilities stronger.

“It’s time to streamline things. It is time to be collaborative. It is time to build up a stronger coaching and a sports science ecosystem, a pathway which takes care of athletes from the beginning of their careers or till the end of their careers.”

That is a different challenge from the one India faced in 2009.

Back then, the question was whether the country could create the conditions for a World Championships, find the money, build the infrastructure and put on the event.

Now the question is whether all the pieces that have emerged since then can work together.

“Having seen the sport grow, it is time to put things into systematic order and have all parties collaborate together in a cohesive manner.”

The coaches are not asking for another revolution. They are asking for the existing one to become a system.

DELHI GETS READY

At the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, the physical signs of India’s new ambition are everywhere.

Glass enclosures are being installed at entry points as part of a double-door system. Vents have been sealed, wooden doors replaced and a non-toxic gel used around ducting to discourage pigeons. Portable machines that mimic predatory bird calls provide another layer of defence.

The changes come after the India Open at the same venue, where pigeons interrupted H.S. Prannoy’s match against Loh Kean Yew and players raised concerns about the conditions.

Now, the seats have been replaced, a championship-grade wooden floor is being laid and new lighting installed. Across the campus, 80 toilets have been changed, 57 of them inside the indoor stadium.

More than Rs 20 crore is being invested in the transformation, according to organisers, with more than 1,200 professionals involved.

India hosted the World Championships in 2009. This time, hosting is no longer the achievement. It is the expectation.

NOT QUITE A POWERHOUSE YET

For all the progress, Gopichand is careful about declaring India a badminton superpower.

“India has made significant progress, but yes, we have China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia — I think are strong badminton nations, along with Denmark and France in Europe coming up very strongly.”

Thailand, too, belongs in that conversation.

India is strong, he says, but it needs another step.

“So I think we need to be one notch up than where we are to be consistently called a powerhouse.”

His definition of that next level is revealing. He wants to see Indian players consistently finish on the podium at Super 750 and Super 1000 events, and do it across more than one discipline.

“I would love to see Indians in, or I think the day we are up there talking about being part of Super 1000 and 750 podium finishes consistently in more than one event, I think that’s when I would really call us a superpower.”

There is a depth target, too.

“There’s a huge bunch of youngsters who are playing very well. I think to have a decent number of players in the top 30 of world badminton — maybe about 8 to 10 of them to target for — is what I would think India’s potential is.”

It is an ambitious target. But it is also a very different kind of ambition from the one India carried into Hyderabad in 2009.

Back then, Saina was the hope. Now, there are too many names to fit comfortably into a single sentence. That is what 17 years have done.

And perhaps the best way to understand the change is to return to the bus.

In 2009, Ramcharan Rankireddy was a volunteer travelling with the Chinese team. Five medal winners were on that bus. He was thrilled simply to be close to them.

Seventeen years later, his younger brother Satwiksairaj is one of the Indian players expected to challenge the hierarchy that once seemed so distant.

Gopichand remembers what the first World Championships meant.

“The biggest achievement was to host the World Championship itself.”

That was 2009. In 2026, hosting is no longer the achievement. It is the expectation that has changed.

The volunteer who once stood beside greatness has a brother who now expects to stand among it. Perhaps there is no simpler measure of how far Indian badminton has come.

– Ends