As the Indian men’s badminton team landed in the country with a bronze medal from the 2026 Thomas Cup on Tuesday, doubles star Chirag Shetty posted an Instagram story.
“Back home now. As usual, no one knows what happened over the past two weeks, and it seems like no one cares,” the story read.
Shetty, who has been the most vocal of shuttlers over the last four years about the lack of recognition he and his counterparts received for the 2022 Thomas Cup win, was ruing the same lack of support from his countrymen.
The story was also reshared by his doubles partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy as the duo expressed their disappointment.
“I never expected anyone to come to the airport and receive us,” said Shetty in a media interaction felicitated by Sports Authority of India (SAI).
“The last time when we when Thomas Cup we were felicitated by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and Prime Minister, but I feel it didn’t get celebrated as much as it should be by the fans.
“The people who watch badminton and know about the sport, they know how big the tournament was but the general public didn’t know the magnitude of the result,” he added.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s Instagram story
Shetty stressed that India still has a long way to go to be considered a sporting nation.
“We are not a sporting nation yet,” he said. “Yes, we win a lot of medals but we don’t celebrate our athletes as we should.”
“There’s only little the government can do. The ecosystem needs to start celebrating sporting achievements,” he added.
“Won’t be easy to get Thomas Cup back to India”
HS Prannoy, who was also a part of the India’s title winning campaign in 2022, and the recent bronze medal winning team also echoed similar sentiments.
“Unfortunately, the tournament’s name is Thomas Cup,” said Prannoy. “People don’t know it’s the World Cup.
“When there is not enough recognition given to that, then it is very tough for the players to get convinced to to this. They think, ‘What is the point of doing this?’ We spend almost three weeks going out there, trying to build a team, which we are not used to.”
“Why are we doing this? This question arises when there’s not enough support given from the fans or media or if the sport is not celebrated. It is very tough for the players to go out and do it again and again.
“So, for the senior players to convince the juniors that we need to do this again for the country is very tough. If we are not celebrating a bronze medal, a silver medal, or a gold medal, it is not going to be easy to get the Thomas Cup back to India,” he added.
Prannoy also revealed how the entire team themselves came together to build the hype around the 2026 Thomas Cup in India before the tournament began.
“As a team, we were trying to create a build up to the event,” he said. “We designed t-shirts for the entire team so that there’s at least a buzz among the fans that there’s a tournament going to happen, which is the world championships of men’s badminton.”
