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Sustaining interest
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The recent ball badminton tournament gave the sport a fillip
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DIE-HARD FANS and players of ball badminton assembled at the Railway Recreation Club Grounds recently for the golden jubilee Senior Nationals.
Like chess, ball badminton too originated in the sub-continent. But, withered to relative obscurity for various reasons, unlike the `Battle of 64 squares' which keeps producing quite a few `kings' and `queens' in this modern world of sport. For some strange reason, the romance with this sport in the twin cities is confined to Malkajgiri United Club and the HAL Grounds over the years.
What spurs even the most dormant ball badminton fan to do his bit to keep the sport going is the fact that it produced its own revered heroes like 1970 Arjuna Awardee J. Pitchaiah. In fact, the sport produced six Arjuna Awardees in all.
The sight at R.R.C. Grounds where some of the enthusiastic participants and some of the ageing were engaged in the battles may show the intensity with which they geared up for the challenge in the event.
Hyderabad players N. Sriranganath, G.V. Ramana, Venkatesh vouch for this. Narayana Reddy, general secretary of A.P. Ball Badminton Association, says the sport is surviving because of the few good gestures from the genuinely concerned. "People still remember the day when the first Senior National was held at the Y.M.C.A., Secunderabad, in 1954 and the huge response it received," he recalls.
Reasoning out the causes for the decline of the sport, he says, "It is one of the fastest sports and demands peak, physical fitness and alertness. we need to come out with some innovations to make it more spectator friendly."
V.S. Prakash Rao, the Delhi-based BBFI official, dons the role of a player too during the event to lend moral support. He also believes that some drastic changes in the format and rules should be made to make the sport more spectator-friendly. To support this, an exhibition match was also organised between a mix of senior players from different States to experiment with a 36-point game with all the `negative' rules coming into vogue. That the game lasted 13 minutes delighted the organisers .
Vijay Prasad Reddy, organising secretary, says that it is unfortunate this sport — though very popular in rural areas — is not included even in rural sports also. "It is time at least SAAP includes the sport from this calendar year to ensure a beginning," he points out.
V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM
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