Lakshya Sen and the Indian badminton team that won on their own money

SAI withheld funds for four Super 500-plus events, and a coach told his best player to suck it up.

Had Lakshya Sen withdrawn, he would have had to pay USD 5,000 as fine to the Badminton World Federation. (Badminton Photo)

5 min readNov 8, 2026 08:57 AM IST First published on: Nov 8, 2026 at 08:57 AM IST

When the funding issue for the European tournaments emerged, coach Vimal Kumar told Lakshya Sen, however arbitrary it felt, that the champion athlete needed to suck it up. “Accept right now that you didn’t medal at the Asian Games, fund yourself, go out there and prove you can win titles,” was the blunt advice after the Sports Authority of India (SAI) withheld funds for four tournaments: the Arctic, Denmark, French and Hylo Opens, all Super 500-plus events, and hence crucial.

Badminton needs financial input to compete with China, Japan, Korea and Indonesia on the Tour, given the prize money is a fraction of truly pro sports like tennis. Shuttlers represent India at the Olympics, Asiad, Thomas, Uber and Sudirman Cups, and winning Tour titles pushes their rankings, which have direct implications on qualification for these ‘Team India’ events. So government funding is absolutely essential when Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand clinch a women’s doubles World Championships medal at home, or four quarterfinalists line up for the Asian Games, including two whose funding was cut after they fell out of the strict ranking bracket assigned to badminton.

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Shivani Naik is a senior sports journalist and Assistant Editor at The Indian Express. She is widely... Read More