For her, age is just a number. Her passion for badminton outdoes her physical stamina and transforms her into a 64-year-old sportstar. But, she has no trophies to flaunt, no certificates that translate her achievements to black and white. Meet Sunita D’Souza for whom, badminton has been her first love since the age of 10! But, thanks to the Badminton Authority of India’s hypocrisy, most of her achievements have no memorabilia. She has only memories and ‘gifts’ that sponsors give her. Just that.
Mrs D’Souza is a rockstar in her own way – at 64, she has a big, fat family to take care of, but despite that, badminton has never taken a backseat. She has several feathers to her cap as a professional badminton player — there is no ‘senior citizen’ tournament that she misses. She participates in all of them — national and international — and makes sure that she bags the title too.
In the recently concluded 38th Indian Masters National Badminton Championship, Mrs D’Souza reigned and how! She won the women’s doubles with her partner from Madhya Pradesh, 58-year-old Vandana Deogirikar. She also bagged the runners-up place in the mixed doubles with her Mumbaikar partner, 56-year-old Anil Kulkarni. But, she did not stop at that. She also came third in the women’s singles in the 55+ category. Inspired? Yes, all of us are.
However, it’s not all rosy for these seniors, whose enthusiasm has been let down by the Badminton Authority of India, time and again. Any tournament organised by BAI for these seniors has to be self-sponsored. From travel to accommodation to food, everything has to be taken care by the players themselves. Mrs D’Souza says, “We have to look for individual sponsors if we are going abroad. We have to bear all the expenses. In return, we aren’t even given trophies. They just give us gifts, that people say we have bought ourselves.â€
Her demands are simple — trophies and cash awards. When BAI can pump in so much of money in the upcoming stars, is it too difficult for them to spare some of their money into encouraging these senior shuttlers? “We have families to take care of, jobs to report to, but it is only because of our passion that we participate,†Mrs D’Souza says. Indeed, year after year, she participates not for the trivial gifts she ends up getting, but because of her love for the sport. The least BAI can do for these enthusiastic shuttlers is provide them with a token of appreciation.
Meanwhile, Mrs D’Souza doesn’t let BAI attitude dampen her spirits. She coaches several working women, and also follows her calling — playing badminton; playing competitive badminton. BAI can probably take a clue from her unwavering spirit and try at least to encourage such a burst of never-say-die attitude. Age, no bar, BAI, remember that!