Thomas Cup win is Indian badminton's 1983 Cricket World Cup victory moment, says coach Vimal Kumar

Indian men's badminton team scripted history on Sunday (May 15) when they defeated Indonesia in the Thomas Cup. Not to forget, India had never won Thomas Cup in its 73-year run and the win is being hailed as one of the glorious moments in the Indian badminton history. If the team coach Vimal Kumar is to be believed, this historic Thomas Cup triumph can do the same to the Indian badminton what the 1983 World Cup win did to cricket.

HISTORY SCRIPTED ___

Pure show of grit and determination & India becomes the #ThomasCup champion for the 1__st time in style, beating 14 times champions Indonesia __ 3-0 in the finals _

It's coming home! __#TUC2022#ThomasCup2022#ThomasUberCups#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/GQ9pQmsSvP — BAI Media (@BAI_Media) May 15, 2022

Indian team came out all guns blazing to beat the 14-time winners Indonesia 3-0 in the final in Bangkok courtesy wins from Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and the doubles duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. 

In the post-match press conference, Kumar fell short of words to describe his feelings.

"I have no words to describe it, we always had hopes but the way the players played, they just put up a performance out of the blue. It was really fantastic. We had such a poor record against Indonesia and to win 3-0 is incredible," Kumar told PTI from Bangkok.

Adarniya Pradhan Mantri Shri @narendramodi ji joining the celebrations of a historic win with our players is such a morale boosting gesture. Thank you Sir for speaking to our players soon after their feat.

India is proudly rejoicing our victory at the Thomas Cup. https://t.co/fGjvpTRhYo — Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 15, 2022

The unassuming coach, who goes about his job quietly, added, "In 1983, when India won the cricket World Cup, the euphoria was something else but cricket was always a very popular sport and I hope with this performance, now badminton can also become so popular."

"It has always been about individual achievements but this was a team performance and I hope the popularity of the sports goes up from here on."

Kumar went on to say that this is Indian badminton's biggest ever achievement, even better than Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand's All England wins and PV Sindhu's medals in Olympics.

"I will rate this the biggest ever. Of course, Prakash and Gopi winning All England, Sindhu winning, all great achievements but as a team what we have done, we couldn't deliver as a team (earlier). You call one a badminton nation when you win a team championships, so I will rate it as the best.

India's historic win was celebrated by even the Prime Minister of Indian Narendra Modi and other athletes like Virat Kohli and Sunil Chhetri.