Haryana – A new nursery for India’s champion women shuttlers

Memorable Trip: Haryana team members and support staff. | Photo credit: K. Murali Kumar

Haryana is home to a large proportion of India’s Olympians and Olympic medalists. At Paris 2024, nearly one in four Olympians was from the state, and four in five individual medalists.

A major reason is the widespread participation of grassroots sports, and the latest discipline to see high levels of involvement in Haryana is badminton.

Saina Nehwal, the pioneering badminton star who won bronze at London 2012, hails from Haryana, but trained in Hyderabad. Now there is a strong group of players including Anmol Kharb – who as a 17-year-old helped India win its maiden Badminton Asia title in 2024 – and Unnati Hooda who has shaped her game in Haryana.

Proof of this was at the recently concluded Senior National Badminton Championships here, where Haryana won its first women’s team championship gold. Devika Sihag then lifted the women’s singles title, Anmol in 2023 and Anupama Upadhyay in 2022 to complete a hat-trick for their state.

“Associations are active now and there are many ranking tournaments in North India compared to earlier times when there was a majority in Bangalore and Hyderabad,” said Harendra Singh Malik, coach at Malik Badminton Academy in Sonepat. “Private academies are also getting involved which means there is a one-on-one focus and personalized training.”

Five wards of Harendra were part of the trophy-winning Haryana team. “In places like Rohtak, Sonepat, the focus was on kabaddi, wrestling. However, now parents are also thinking about badminton,’ he said. “As a non-contact sport, it’s safe, and allows you to get a good education. When players grow, coaches grow and results follow.

Haryana Sangathan’s travel coach Ravikant Singa felt Saina’s ascension had an impact. “All the girls who started badminton in Haryana did so after watching Saina,” he said.

After watching movies like Dangal, some parents were convinced that their children can do well. And many of them have chosen an indoor sport like badminton. In fact, when we came to Bengaluru, we were 99 per cent sure of winning the team gold.”

Now these budding players are expected to consistently excel at the international level. “National winners can’t be role models; they can be for their centres, academies, districts,” opined Harendra.

‘Now it should be turned into a success at the global level. In Haryana, we are still focused on results, not business. All India’s medal winners in wrestling are from Haryana. We expect the same in badminton.”