It’s not like authentic sports cities like Hyderabad in India with wide exposure to several disciplines didn’t try it. Just that smaller towns in Thailand, and the capital Bangkok alike, could completely barricade busy roads and completely close off traffic on Sundays, so that they turned into makeshift sports streets, where they consistently played sports. Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, the then 55-year-old businesswoman, a self-made corporate success story, with a love for sport and the backing of Thai royals, was given a free mandate to pull off her Sport Street initiative and badminton, her adored sport, continued to blossom through impromptu shuttle games on streets. Elected president of the Badminton World Federation this week, at age 60 and only the second woman to rise high in that hierarchy, Leeswadtrakul is expected to bring the same wide view, inclusiveness, access and foresight to the sport she’s now globally taken charge of, years after picking an economics degree from University of Manchester. Story continues below this ad Women’s badminton doesn’t need an extra push—the players have been excellent …