here are two versions as to where the game of Badminton originated. The first version is that Badminton was first played by British Officers in a small town called Badminton in United Kingdom. The second version is that it was first introduced by British Army officers in Pune-India.

 

The International Badminton Federation was formed on 5^th July 1934 on the initiative of the Badminton Association of England.

 

From an initial membership of nine countries, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, New Zealand and Wales, the federation now enjoys membership of 164 countries.

 

The founding President of IBF was Sir George Thomas in whose name the Thomas Cup is being played every two year which is only Men team event in the World.

 

Betty Uber presented the Uber Cup to IBF on 4^th July 1956 in London and the Uber Cup, Team Event for ladies was introduced.

 

History of Badminton in Pakistan

The Pakistan Badmitnon Federation was formed in 1953 and was affiliated with International Badmitnon Federation in 1954. Sultan F. Hussain was the first Secretary General. Shamshad Ali became the first National Singles Winner in 1954 and retained the title till he was first defeated in 1959 by a young player of 17 year Naqi Mohsin. Pakistan played its first Thomas cup Match against Sri Lanka in 1956 where it defeated Sri Lanka by 9-0. Shamshad Ali, Irshad Ahmad Latif Ganai, Rustam Barucha and Mennen Soares represented Pakistan. The Pakistani team lost to India 0-9 in the second Match. The Indian team included World Class players Nandu Natekar and T. N Seth

 

The next Thomas Cup against Sri Lanka was played at Lahore in 1960 at the University Hall Lahore. Pakistan again defeated Sri Lanka by 9-0. Naqi Mohsin became the youngest player to represent Pakistan in Thomas Cup at the age of 18 years. The prominent players were  Shamshad Ali, Irshad Ahmad, Nazir Rajput, Masood Khan, Akram Baig, Azim Wasti, Mussarat Wasti, Naqi Mohsin and Tahir Karamat.

 

In the ladies side G. Rodrigues, Elsie Hunt, Talat Sultana, Nighat Sultana were the prominent players winning National titles. Later on Ayesha Akram , Ismat Saeed, Ghazala Wadood, Tania shah, Afshan Shuja, Batool Kazim, Zarina Jamal and Asma Butt were prominent . Asma Butt won the National title eight times followed by Ismat Saeed who won the title seven times.

The later period saw the emergence of Salah ud Din who won the singles title four years, Fazal Haq, Anwar Saeed, Saleh Bukhari and Minhaj ud Din represented Pakistan. Then came Javed Iqbal and Hassan Shaheed and later on Tariq Wadood who is undoubtedly the best player Pakistan ever produced. In the current Lady National Players, Ayesha Akram, Uzma Butt, Farzana Ali, Sara Mohmand, Sara Khan, Saima Waqas and Palwasha Basher are prominent.

 

Golden Period of Pakistan Badmitnon

The Golden period of Pakistan Badminton was between years 1972 to 1975. During the Secretary ship of Naqi Mohsin, Funds were collected and Javed Iqbal and Hassan Shaheed were sent to play in four International Tournaments in Europe, Denmark Open, Dutch Open, German Open, and all England.

 

Javed Iqbal and Hassan Shaheed put up excellent performance reaching quarter finals in three tournaments in Men Doubles. Tariq Wadood was taken to China and Russia by the writer as a junior player. A Chinese Coach was engaged who arrived just three weeks prior to the Tehran Asian Games in 1974. The best ever performance was achieved in Asian Games 1974, when Pakistan beat Japan 3-0 and South Korea 3-1 to reach the Semi Finals. They played India in Semi Finals and Javed Iqbal and Hassan Shaheed lost to their opponents Prakash Padukone who had won the All England and Dinesh Kahnna, the Asian Champion by the barest of margin 18-17 and 18-16 in the third sets.

 

The Chinese Coach polished the game of Tariq Wadood and he reached the finals in Men Singles of World Championship held in Beijing, China in 1978. He was ranked thirteen in the World. Pakistan Team achieved the World Ranking of 12 at that time.

Then came the dark period, Naqi Mohsin was removed by underhand methods by one vote and during the next twenty five years standard kept dropping and we became the almost bottom team of the World losing to Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.  

 

The revival period came in 2002 when Aamer Hayat Khan Rokhri became Secretary General and Naqi Mohsin became the Senior Vice President. Their joint efforts put a new life in Pakistan Badminton and after six years Pakistan Men Team’s unofficial World Ranking rose to 30 from 120 an improvement of 90 positions. As many as twenty five teams were sent abroad during the last six years in which under 16 and under 19 teams participated in Asia and World Championships for the first time.

 

World Honors achieved by Officials

Naqi Mohsin was elected Council Member of International Badmitnon Federation and Vice President Asian Badmitnon Confederation in 1975 the first and only Pakistani to achieve this distinction.

 

Naqi Mohsin was again elected as Vice President Badmitnon Asian Confederation in 2007 and was also made Regional Director South East Asia including India.

 

Let us work together to bring back past glories