The BOSM Press sat down with Bhavya Shah, the captain of the Badminton Boys’ Team of BITS Pilani. With the training season at its peak in anticipation of BOSM, he stepped out to talk about his team’s experiences.

Bhavya started off by explaining the format of the badminton tournament during BOSM. He explained that the matches were of three types—men’s, women’s, and mixed—and the tournament saw between fourteen and sixteen teams competing in each category respectively. He added that this iteration of the tournament had its scoring system changed, specifically for the mixed category, where a trump scoring system had been implemented. 

When asked about the popularity of the sport on campus, Bhavya responded in an overwhelmingly positive manner, stating that badminton was ‘the most loved sport on campus’. He said that, of all the sports for which coaching was available, badminton in particular saw the most people showing up. He also brought up the fact that the badminton courts were almost always packed.

The captain was confident in his team’s preparation; however, he did point out that the biggest challenge and the only impediment in his team’s training was the lack of time between recruitments and BOSM. He also shared that, for him and a lot of his teammates, discipline remained a struggle—waking up for morning practice, attending lectures, and then going to evening practice was sometimes a bit of a test.

He concluded the interview by emphasising his excitement for the fest and advising the new freshman batch to enjoy the fest and attend as many matches as they can.