It seems this is the season of bizarre news. I had written one post earlier about a town in Italy that had banned girls from wearing mini skirts. This post talks about a new ruling by badminton world federation which has made wearing of skirts mandatory for all female players! This shocking move is making news everywhere. The federation is of the opinion that this is important to ensure attractive presentation of the badminton. So their stupid logic is that the popularity of badminton depends on what players wear on court. The federation wants badminton to be as popular and eye-catching as tennis it seems. This is nothing but a desperate attempt on part of the federation which wants to glamorize the sport on similar lines as tennis. And as one would expect this move has elicited cries from many parts with the world champion Lilyana Natsir giving it thumbs down. It is also expected to raise eyebrows in conservative countries especially in Asia. We have already seen how Sania Mirza’s dressing sense on court was criticized by certain section of people.
This proposition is not only outrageous and illogical but at the same time it is an insult to the players who have dedicated their life to the sport. You can not expect to make any sport more popular or more ‘presentable’ by dictating the dress code of its FEMALE players. Nobody can claim that tennis is popular or presentable because of the way Sharapova dresses herself on court. This claim will only undermine the skill sets of Sharapova who has made it big purely on her skills, so let us not attribute her success to her dress code which is her personal choice. Agreed, badminton is not as big as tennis and that it should make efforts to make it big but this move just does not make sense. All sports cannot be equally popular and we have to accept that. Badminton has its own icons and followers, we have players like Saina Nehwal who can inspire a generation of young shuttlers based on her achievements rather than what she wears on court. Fortunately sanity prevailed and decision regards to the dress code has been deferred and hopefully it will never come into effect.
There are other ways of making a sport popular. It should do what Hockey federation did with Premier Hockey League (PHL). Having teams at state/city level and making them compete with each other should help. It will also give a chance to some of the unknown players to make an impression. PHL may not have been a runaway success but it certainly made people, other than hockey fans, notice it. You could actually see people turning up at stadiums with their families like IPL. Even at IPL matches we see how the female spectators and even those who do not follow cricket (there are few but still the specie does exist in India) turn up at stadiums or watch at home. So you never know doing the same in badminton may help the cause. However going the IPL or PHL way always has a danger of putting sport in the same category as going for a movie on a weekend as it then becomes a pure form of entertainment due to the commercialization/glamorization of sport.
This proposition is not only outrageous and illogical but at the same time it is an insult to the players who have dedicated their life to the sport. You can not expect to make any sport more popular or more ‘presentable’ by dictating the dress code of its FEMALE players. Nobody can claim that tennis is popular or presentable because of the way Sharapova dresses herself on court. This claim will only undermine the skill sets of Sharapova who has made it big purely on her skills, so let us not attribute her success to her dress code which is her personal choice. Agreed, badminton is not as big as tennis and that it should make efforts to make it big but this move just does not make sense. All sports cannot be equally popular and we have to accept that. Badminton has its own icons and followers, we have players like Saina Nehwal who can inspire a generation of young shuttlers based on her achievements rather than what she wears on court. Fortunately sanity prevailed and decision regards to the dress code has been deferred and hopefully it will never come into effect.
There are other ways of making a sport popular. It should do what Hockey federation did with Premier Hockey League (PHL). Having teams at state/city level and making them compete with each other should help. It will also give a chance to some of the unknown players to make an impression. PHL may not have been a runaway success but it certainly made people, other than hockey fans, notice it. You could actually see people turning up at stadiums with their families like IPL. Even at IPL matches we see how the female spectators and even those who do not follow cricket (there are few but still the specie does exist in India) turn up at stadiums or watch at home. So you never know doing the same in badminton may help the cause. However going the IPL or PHL way always has a danger of putting sport in the same category as going for a movie on a weekend as it then becomes a pure form of entertainment due to the commercialization/glamorization of sport.
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