After Indian men's team blanked Indonesia 3-0 in the final of the Thomas Cup, they spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone. The PM had earlied praised the team on Twitter, writing: "The Indian badminton team has scripted history! The entire nation is elated by India winning the Thomas Cup! Congratulations to our accomplished team and best wishes to them for their future endeavours. This win will motivate so many upcoming sportspersons."
He then decided to speak personally to the shuttlers and congratulate them. He also invited the winner to his residence on returning from Bangkok to celebrate the win.
The Indian badminton team has scripted history! The entire nation is elated by India winning the Thomas Cup! Congratulations to our accomplished team and best wishes to them for their future endeavours. This win will motivate so many upcoming sportspersons.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 15, 2022
"You all have made it ... It is one of India's finest sporting wins," PM Modi said during the call.
Flanked by his teammates, Kidambi Srikanth spoke to the PM first, followed by Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and Chirag Shetty.
Watch here:
A special interaction with our badminton _ champions, who have won the Thomas Cup and made 135 crore Indians proud. pic.twitter.com/KdRYVscDAK
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 15, 2022
The PM also took note of the fact the Indian team won the final without dropping a match, and mentioned it during the interaction with the players. He said it made the win even more special.
The PM said his office would coordinate the players' visit to his residence.
Aware of India's record in the tournament, the PM asked when did the team start to think that it could go all the way to pull off a win of this magnitude and create history.
Srikanth said that it was after the win over Malaysia in the quarterfinals that the team started to believe that it can do something special this time around. Sen and Prannoy echoed Srikanth's thoughts, while thanking the PM for his encouragement and motivation.
Modi said the team's coaches also deserve a lot of credit for this achievement, while observing that the quarterfinals was a neck-to-neck affair.
Vimal Kumar, the coach of the team, was short of words to describe his emotions and compared the win with Indian men's cricket team victory at the 1983 World Cup in England.