Hammerhead with a warm smile

JS Shastry wouldn't have known what a favour he did the Indian badminton world when he asked his errant son to give up cricket and take up the racquet game; the son has grown into quite a character on the national circuit.

A relentlessly attacking player -- and a vegetarian at that -- JBS Vidyadhar has justified his father's decision. Not that his father was actuated by any great motive save that of diverting his son's excessive temper: the boy had beaten up his cricket coach with a bat. Realising that he wouldn't go far with such a temperament, and that it would do him good if he were in an individual rather than team sport, JS Shastry asked his son to take up badminton.

The last couple of years have been excellent. A meteoric rise from no. 21 to no.3, consistent semifinal and final placings, and good performances against some of the world's top players: Vidyadhar, 25, promises to get better.

In the Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC) championships, he beat Budi Santoso 13 and 12. In the pre-quarters he stretched Ng Wei in three tough games: 4-15, 15-9, 15-7. On the national circuit he has been beating the big names consistently, and has come agonisingly close to winning a major.

In the All India Ranking in Bangalore late last year, he beat Abhinn in the semis before troubling Chetan in a three-game loss in the final. In the Senior Nationals at Hyderabad in January 2004, he survived a tremendous comeback from Utsav Mishra in the quarterfinals (Mishra came back from 3-14 in the final game to equalise at 14-all before Vidyadhar recovered), threw everything at Chetan in the semis before the top seed prevailed in a tense three-setter, and immediately after, partnered Jaseel Ismail to beat the top seeds, Sanave Thomas and V Diju in the doubles semifinals.

But with Vidyadhar, it isn't just performance. It's his ability to keep hammering down smashes, again and again and again, from the baseline or midcourt, until the opponent just cannot retrieve. Sometimes it's just breathtaking; in the Indian domain of crafty, stroke-making, elegant chess-players, Vidyadhar is a tornado. It's almost as if he plays the doubles game even in singles.

"It really doesn't make any difference to me," he says. "If the shuttle is there to be hit, I hit it." A sort of Virender Sehwag on the badminton court.

That kind of consistent hitting must take enormous toll, but Vidyadhar is oblivious. He "recovers quickly" without needing special massage sessions or anything of the sort; says it's "all in the mind", and doesn't think he'll ever change the way he plays. In any case, as the beep test in the Thomas Cup camp at Bangalore showed, he's the fittest in the team.

The turning point came with Malaysian great Razif Sidek, who had a doubles camp at Sports Authority of India (SAI), Bangalore, in December 2001. Sidek was impressed by Vidyadhar, and the lad looks upon him now as mentor and guide. "Razif helped me with my game, it was after the camp that my ranking improved. I started playing singles well after that. The multi-shuttle drills he did helped a lot. We used to cry during his training, it was so tough."

Since that camp, Vidyadhar -- who has always been an excellent doubles player -- took his singles far more seriously. He has been planning his singles game better, especially his smashing. Earlier, some players used to catch him, especially when their parallels were good.

He calls up Razif regularly, and hopes to spend time with him during the Malaysian and Indonesian Open. And that's another thing... because he isn't in the team, he is considering applying for a loan. Even the All England... "I'm playing well," he was telling Jwala at the camp. "I'm thinking of taking a loan and going for the All England."

Vidyadhar's father was an all-rounder who played Ranji cricket for four years. He is now retired as Physical Education Director in a junior college at Tenali, where Vidyadhar was born. After the early mishap with the cricket coach, he had to take badminton lessons at Vijayawada -- a one hour journey from Tenali -- everyday. He would train at Tenali in the morning, attend school, go to Vijayawada, practise, and return by 10.30.

The womenfolk at home are no strangers to badminton. His mother and three of his four sisters were good players, and one of his sisters was a University captain.

Having started to play in 1989, he reached the pre-quarters of the first tournament he played -- The Mini Nationals at Century Club, Bangalore.

Since then, it's been a pretty steady rise.

Luckily, he's not one of those who is modest about his expectations on the international circuit. "Our singles players can be much better overseas. Our strokes, our game, is very good. But we get overawed when we meet the Chinese or others."

That's another thing that distinguishes him from the others in the team -- an overt confidence in his abilities -- which some term arrogance. But Vidyadhar isn't shy; nor does he give credit where it isn't due. After the Nationals semifinal loss, for example, he sounded unhappy about the line calls and Chetan's service action.

But he is also the kind who doesn't keep his hurts within himself for a long time; he likes to get on with his life, as with his game. An open smile and a readiness to talk, anytime, mark him out as one of the country's warmest players.