At 88, this national badminton champion Narinder Syal shares his journey

Deepkamal Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 25

At 88 and having recently undergone surgery of both his knees, Narinder Syal is still quite agile. Climbing up the high steps of the Raizada Hansraj Stadium, where the District Badminton Tournament is underway, Syal was quite comfortable. The fitness level that he maintained at the age of 16 when he went on to become the first shuttler from Punjab to win the National Junior Championship held at Kanpur in 1951 is still visible. He was the contemporary and a good friend of Nandu Natekar, the badminton superstar, who passed away last month.

Syal, who is more popularly known as ‘Daddy Syal’, is a resident of Cantonment area here and hails from the family of film distributors. Watching the students play at the stadium today, Syal says that unlike the present days when the parents encourage the students to go in for sports, his experience was just the opposite. He laughed as he shared: “When I won the national tourney, my father became so angry that he broke my racket and told me that I will not play in future. Actually, at that time I failed in Class X and he was angry. I too ran away from home and went to Mumbai.”

Later, Syal returned to Delhi and his father told him to handle the family business in Delhi. “I did not pursue my studies ever again but in 1956, I returned to my passion, badminton, again. In 1960, I became the state champion of Delhi which I considered as my comeback. Seeing my achievements, a college in Jalandhar gave me temporary admission and I played inter-university for them and brought them medals. I also went on to play an international event in Denmark. My forte in game was that no one, including the world top ranking players, could win from me in the first set. Since I never worked on my stamina, I used to get beaten in the second or the third set,” he shared.

Syal compared the present times with his days. “We had no coaches and no indoor stadium in those days and I still excelled just by practising on my own in the grounds of colleges. Even our state championships used to be held outdoors in the grounds. There was no indoor stadium at that time in Punjab. Kapurthala perhaps was one among the first few districts to have an indoor stadium. No one taught us the finer nuances of the game. We were self-learners and self-motivated players.”

Syal wished all the students good luck and especially remarked that the work being undertaken by the District Badminton Association for the betterment of players was helping them groom well.