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Badminton visits its old home

Some of India's biggest shuttle stars have graced the Udyogamandal Club. Youngsters at the State Championship will be walking through history, says STAN RAYAN

PHOTO: H. VIBHU

HAPPY DAYS Big time badminton is back at the Udyogamandal Club

Clean-shaven young men vying with small children for the top prize, mature faces virtually competing with babes...

Tampering with age has been a major problem in Indian sport for years but early next week, badminton officials in Kerala will be guilty of something similar.

The first Kerala State Badminton Championship was played more than 50 years ago in 1954, but when the FACT Udyogamandal Club hosts the event, beginning Monday, the championship will have a much younger age. It will just be the 37th Seshasayee State Senior Championship.

Prakash Padukone

If you're worried about the officials' strange behaviour, there is not much cause for concern. By rolling back the years, the Kerala Badminton Association will just be honouring and reviving an old tournament.

A few decades ago, the Seshasayee all-India tournament, hosted by the FACT Udyogamandal Club, was a very prestigious one in the national circuit. Stars like former All-England champion Prakash Padukone, Asian champion Dinesh Khanna, Nandu Natekar, Syed Modi, Vimal Kumar, Rajiv Bagga, P.Gopi Chand and Ami Ghia often graced the club's courts.

But when the Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd, or FACT as it is more popularly known, went through a troubled phase a few years ago, the tournament suffered many hiccups before finally coming to a halt in 2000 with the 36th edition.

Vimal Kumar

So, we now have the 37th Seshasayee State senior championship, a strange brew that blends the Seshasayee Open with Kerala's official State championship.

By going back to Udyogamandal, badminton will be making a visit to its old home. And it will be a long sentimental journey, very much like the rickety drive from Kochi to the club's old hall many miles away. "Many years ago, some of Kerala's brightest talent, including four-time junior national champion Jessy Philip, the first sub-junior national champion Koshy Muthalali, Edwin Padua and Noreen Padua used to train at our club," remembered K. Madhavan Pillai, an Udyogamandal veteran, who has been the chief referee at Seshasayee regularly from 1978.

"For long, the club was the cradle of badminton in Kerala. And our children were very fortunate, they used to see all the national players regularly during October-November when we hosted the annual Seshasayee," said Mr. Pillai.

"On a couple of occasions, the tournament even went international for we had players from many countries, including Ghana. And one year, sometime in the seventies, we had tickets for the event and made a profit of around Rs. 10,000!"

Udyogamandal Club, virtually the FACT Officers Club, hosted the Senior National Championship in 1982. And the Seshasayee tournament was a South Zone ranking tournament a few times but there were occasions, like the 2000 edition, when quality players were missing.

Prakash's father, Ramesh Padukone, has also come to Udyogamandal a few times as the tournament's chief referee.

One of the best matches played at Udyogamandal was a match between Suresh Goel and a young Prakash Padukone, says Mr Pillai. "It came just a few months before Prakash made his first big splash by winning the junior and senior national title in Chennai in 1972. Prakash lost that match but he extended national star Suresh Goel to three games in the thriller. We knew then that he was made for something big," said Mr. Pillai. S.Muralidharan, the current KBA secretary, is also a former Seshasayee champion.

Sparkling memories really. And when the Kerala stars swat the bird at the coming State championship, they will hear many whispers from history.

And in the stands, many old tales will be told.

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