{"id":47317,"date":"2026-04-06T12:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T07:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=47317"},"modified":"2026-04-06T12:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T07:26:30","slug":"dinesh-khannas-1965-asian-win-a-lone-bright-spot-in-indias-long-sporting-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/badminton\/dinesh-khannas-1965-asian-win-a-lone-bright-spot-in-indias-long-sporting-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinesh Khanna\u2019s 1965 Asian Win: A lone bright spot in India\u2019s long sporting drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dinesh Khanna made history in 1965 when he became the first Indian to win<\/strong> the men\u2019s singles title at the Asian Badminton Championships in Lucknow. The 22-year-old defeated Thailand\u2019s Sangob Rattanusorn 15-3, 15-11 in the final. Khanna also won a bronze medal at the 1966 Commonwealth Games and represented India from 1961 to 1976 in several Thomas Cup matches. However, his victory remained India\u2019s only major Asian singles title in badminton for many decades. It showed one man\u2019s talent but also highlighted the lack of continued success in Indian sports.<\/p>\n

Deep-Rooted Problems: Wrong Mindset Towards Sports and Poor Government Support<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The long gap since Khanna\u2019s win points to serious issues in how India views and supports sports. The common mindset in society sees sports as just a hobby or a risky choice, not a real career. Families push children towards studies and safe jobs like engineering or medicine. They avoid the hard, daily training and full commitment needed to become world-class athletes. As a result, a lot of natural talent gets wasted, and India struggles to build strong teams or consistent winners.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s role has been equally disappointing. For decades, there has been very little funding, old facilities, and weak coaching systems. Sports federations are often controlled by politics and favouritism instead of merit. Selection is unfair, and there is almost no proper system to find and train young talent from the grassroots level. Without good sports science, medical help, or enough international exposure, even promising players fail to reach the top. A country of 1.4 billion people keeps underperforming on the global stage because of these failures.<\/p>\n

National Training Centre in Guwahati: Small Signs of Change and New Rising Stars<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Thankfully, some positive changes are now visible. The Badminton Association of India\u2019s National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati (Amingaon) is a modern facility with top-class courts and training programmes. It is helping young players develop properly and shows that better infrastructure can make a difference.<\/p>\n

In chess, Viswanathan Anand opened the door for success. Today, India is strong with stars like World Champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, and young talents such as Leon Luke Mendonca and Pranesh Munirethinam. In badminton, established players like PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, and Chirag Shetty are doing well. New rising stars and juniors include Ayush Shetty, Anupama Upadhyaya, Unnati Hooda, Tanvi Sharma, Anmol Kharb, Pruthvi K Roy, and Devika Sihag.<\/p>\n

These young athletes are benefiting from better academies and support. They prove that with the right changes in mindset and government effort, India can turn its huge population into real sporting power. If we keep building on these small steps, consistent success may finally replace years of disappointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dinesh Khanna made history in 1965 when he became the first Indian to win the men\u2019s singles title at the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":47318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2040,5101,5111,2423,4057],"class_list":["post-47317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-badminton","tag-badmintion-association-of-india","tag-badminton-asia-championship","tag-dinesh-khanna","tag-guwahati","tag-top-stories"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47323,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47317\/revisions\/47323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}