The Indian men's badminton team ended their 73-year-old wait for a gold medal at the Thomas Cup when the contingent beat 14-time champions Indonesia in straight matches to secure a 3-0 thumping series victory in their final match at the Impact Arena in Bangkok on Sunday, May 15.
Underdogs in the competition, the team led by Kidambi Srikanth, fought hard in their last three matches in the tournament to defeat five-time champions Malaysia in the quarterfinals, former champions Denmark in the semifinals and then thrashed the most successful team in the history of the competition in the final.
In an interview with India Today after the Thomas Cup triumph, India's chief badminton coach and former All England champion, Pullela Gopichand played up the importance of this victory, saying it is much bigger than the 1983 Cricket World Cup win for Indian badminton.
"I would say that in badminton terms this is even bigger (than the 1983 World Cup win). I think nobody would have imagined that we would win something as big as this," Gopichand said.
"I am really really happy, not only for Indian badminton but for Indian sport. If you were to put cricket aside, I think no other sport in this country can talk about this kind of a team," he added.
Highlighting India's prolific wins over Malaysia and then Denmark, Gopichand believes that these victories showcased the character that the current crop of young players possess, "I think it is huge for India to get to that stage. To beat Malaysia in the quarter-finals and then Denmark, I think that showed the character of the team. The first match today was very critical. I think once you start off well the momentum is with you and it makes that so much tougher for the opposition to come back.
"And that's what happened. Satwik and Chirag piled up the pressure and just stayed on close enough and that was very important. And when it really mattered I think we just played well. And it was amazing to see Srikanth. Each one of those matches were really close and we need this team to be able to pull this thing and I am happy that the entire team came together as a unit and played well," the former Indian shuttler concluded.
