Something felt a little off as I walked past the entry gates into Siri Fort this Sunday. Almost felt like deja vu from my time in the queue at the Bangalore Test match, definite buzz, lots of enthusiastic chatter and people waiting patiently with painted faces and flags in a seemingly unending queue, long before it was actually scheduled to begin.

It was a ‘little off’ in an unexpected, yet pleasant way, because for a change this was a crowd that had gathered not to watch cricket, but another sport. Other sports in India have always complained about how cricket hogs the limelight and people care for little else. But here, at Siri Fort, I was witnessing change.

Though my Delhi trip was planned, the match wasn’t a part of it, but once in the city, I couldn’t miss the repeat of the Rio final between PV Sindhu and Carolina Marin on Sunday.

Still, I was fortunate enough to actually watch PV Sindhu playing the Indian Super Series final. I say fortunate to watch not because she eventually won, but because I was lucky enough to get a seat at the stadium, which was absolutely jam packed for almost four hours before the match started.

The sight that I saw when I walked in at 3 pm, was truly something to behold. The free stand for visitors was filled to the brim and fans were cheering a match between two Japanese teams playing for the women’s doubles title (God knows who they were supporting!) But of course, they weren’t there for the women’s doubles game.

Sindhu the sporting icon

At the age of 21, PV Sindhu is probably amongst the youngest sporting icons India has ever had in it’s history so far (discount Sachin Tendulkar). The reason for this meteoric rise is the silver she secured in August last year to become the first Indian woman to win a medal of that hue at the Olympics. Commercial success followed but even that would count for little, had Sindhu not been able to back it up. But her continued success means that badminton is no longer being confined to just the back pages.

For me, the commercial success is secondary. The most heartwarming part of this achievement is how a large segment of youngsters in the country suddenly feel it’s cool to play a sport other than cricket. I have personally heard instances of two such young kids who count Sindhu as their favourite sports person, one from a cousin (who also happened to be in Delhi and made it to the stadium to make his daughter jealous) and one from a proud grandparent who was a stranger to me, but couldn’t resist leaving a comment on my Facebook post about the event.

Even at the stadium, every seat around us was filled with young kids, some with badminton racquets, all of them cheering as soon as they got the first glimpse of Sindhu walking in. Almost all of them seemed to know who Marin was and the fact that a very daunting task lay ahead of Sindhu, but that didn’t stop them from baying for her blood with every shot.

Many people in the stadium wouldn’t be able to recount the many differences between their styles of play, but almost everyone seemed to be able to recognise Pullela Gopichand as her coach and the one that coached Sindhu to the Olympic silver. This is not happening by chance — sustained success has given rise to a bunch of really passionate fans who had turned up to watch an icon they look upto.

This was more than evident once the match started and Sindhu started flying out of the blocks. Marin might have been the favorite before the match, but once Sindhu got the start she got and with the crowd behind her, it really looked like Sindhu was determined to give her fans the victory they had turned up for. Every point was cheered and every smash was pre-empted with a loud ask for it during the 48 minutes that the match lasted. Maybe it was the crowd, maybe it was just her, but throughout the game Sindhu kept her nose ahead of Marin , who managed to get only a one-point lead only once in the entire match. There was no rush to leave as soon as the match got over either, almost everyone stayed back to see her getting that gold medal for the winner, they had after all been behind her all the way with the noise, it was only deserving that the crowning of their favorite champion too received the same attention.

Indian Badminton on the rise

This turnout while surprising (given that the Premier Badminton League) earlier this year didn’t attract houseful crowds), wasn’t completely unexpected. Badminton in India has been growing, and at a significant pace at that. We have a bunch of players fighting it out on the big stage and many of them continuing to make waves at different times – Sameer Verma, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, HS Prannoy, Ajay Verma and the forgotten one who all of this started with, Saina Nehwal. She was, of course, the champion Sindhu aimed to eclipse and whose peak of London Olympics and triple Super Series Premier wins coincided with the launch of the Indian Badminton League in 2013.

The IBL was an attempt at cashing in on her rise and making the sport popular amongst the youth, it failed at it’s first attempt and then was relaunched as the PBL after a two-year hiatus. Though, arguably, it never really achieved the level of craze the more popular Pro Kabbadi League has managed to achieve. But, maybe it has and I just missed it, because a large part of these youngsters also knew who men’s champion Viktor Axelsen was and cheered him as loudly enough when he was playing.

All of this point to it being a really golden era for badminton, likely the most popular sport outside cricket in India. As things stand, I am led to believe that Sindhu could likely climb as high as No 2 in the rankings, above Marin whom she beat yesterday. Also, let’s not forget that we have another 15-year-old who stands at the top of the Under-15 rankings for men, Lakshya Sen. Maybe the next few years are going to see the rise of more young badminton fans and players in India and an annual event such as PBL would only give them more of an incentive to keep giving the sport a crack.

As an Indian sports fan who has always been amongst the millions that lament every Olympics about the lack of medals, Sunday was indeed something really special to witness. It might have taken many years, but finally we seem to have a champion who doesn’t wield a willow or smash the ball out into the stands to secure the winning runs.

It proved that the nation didn’t care that about the fact that she might have lost the most important match of her career so far, she will always have a huge place in our hearts and most importantly, will be a champion who has made the next generation of Indian sports not just about cricket.