“He lit the torch that was carried forward by others. We will never again get to see the God of badminton.” These were the kind of spontaneous reactions from veteran badminton players who came to know on Wednesday morning of the passing of arguably the greatest badminton player that India has produced, Nandu Natekar, at the age of 88, from ailments related to old age.

For members of an older generation who have witnessed badminton in the 1950s and 1960s, there can never again be a player who created so much magic on a 22 ft x 44 ft court with a racquet and a shuttlecock. Neither Prakash Padukone nor Pullela Gopichand, the only Indians to win the prestigious All England Championships in 1980 and 2001 respectively, could measure up to Natekar’s genius.