Badminton is a racquet sport, which uses lightweight racquets to hit the shuttlecock (also known as bird/birdie) across the net. Although people in general consider badminton as an outdoor activity, the formal games are played on a rectangular indoor court. The current form of the game was developed in British India. The game can be played in ‘singles’, ‘doubles’ and ‘mixed doubles’ format. When it debuted in the 1992 Summer Olympics, there were only men’s/ women’s singles and doubles event, the mixed doubles event was added 4 years later. The Badminton World Federation is the body responsible for governing the sport internationally.

The rectangular court is divided into half by the net, it must be noted that the doubles court (20 feet) is wider than singles court (17 feet), but both have the same length (44 feet). The height of the net is 5 feet at the centre and 5 feet 1 inch at the edge. There is a short service line that is at a distance of 6 feet 6 inches from the net, the server has to make sure that the shuttlecock passes over this line, otherwise the opponent gets a point.

Scoring

A match consists of 3 games, each game is played for 21 points, that is the first player to reach 21 points wins the game. A player needs to win at least two of the three games to win the match. A point is awarded to the side which wins a rally, regardless of whether they were the server or not. Then the winner of the point gets the next serve. If the score reaches 20-20, then the players require 2 points to win the game, however, if in this process the score reaches 29-29, the one who gets the 30th point wins.
How do you win a point?

A player wins a point if the shuttlecock lands inside opponent’s half of the court, that is within the boundaries. If it lands outside the boundary then a point is conceded. In case the shuttle hits the net, passes through it or under it or if the player strikes the shuttle twice with their racquet, they end up conceding a point. Even touching the net with your body or racquet concedes a point.

The following are some basic rules of the sport:

• Before the start of a rally the players stand diagonally in the opposite service courts.
• For a serve to be considered legal it must be hit diagonally over the net.
• The serve must be hit below the server’s waist and the racquet shaft should be pointing downwards.
• When a point is won, the players move into the opposite service station for the next rally.
• Second serves are not allowed.
• A ‘let’ can be called by the referee to halt the play in case of problems with the shuttlecock or any unforeseen circumstances/ accidents.
• There are two rest periods, first of 90 seconds after the first game and second of 5 minutes after the second game.

A singles match requires 6 officials that include an umpire, four line judges and a service judge. For a doubles match 8 officials are required that is 2 additional line judges, one for each side of the court.

Badminton in India

In India, the Badminton Association of India, founded in 1934, is responsible for managing the sport. Dipankar Bhattacharjee, U Vimal Kumar and Madhumita Bisht were the first players to represent India in the 1992 olympics. Some notable achievements of Indian badminton players are mentioned below:

• Prakash Padukone was the first Indian player to rank as World No. 1 in the game. He was also the first Indian to win the All England Open in 1980 and a gold medal at the Commonwealth games.
• Pullela Gopichand was the second Indian player to win the All England Open 2001, taking after his mentor Prakash Padukone. Later he went on to become a coach and mentor for the next generation.
• Saina Nehwal was the first Indian female player to achieve the World No. 1 rank in April, 2015. She is also the first Indian player to win a medal at the olympics, she won a bronze medal at the 2012 London olympics.
• Kidambi Srikanth was ranked World No. 1 in 2018, the only Indian male shuttler to achieve this since Prakash Padukone.
• P.V. Sindhu is the first Indian to win a gold at the BWF World Championships (2019) and the only Indian badminton player to win 2 consecutive medals at the olympics, winning a silver at the 2016 and bronze at the 2020 olympics.