17-05-2025
Next line of players will start performing in a year or two: BAI gen secretary
CHENNAI: The Badminton Association of India (BAI) general secretary Sanjay Mishra felt things will improve soon because several systems have been or are in the process of being implemented. He felt changes could have been made earlier but a start has been made. 'Let's concentrate on the future,' he said. One such area is creating a decent perennial bench strength.
"Of late in international challenge level tournaments, some of our second string players are doing well,' he told the New Indian Express on Friday. 'Today (Friday) at St. Denis International Challenge, there are some four or five quarter-finalists. Tanvi Sharma has won an international event recently. Unnati (Hooda) is another player doing well. Ayush (Shetty) had beaten the All England finalist. Young players have started performing. They will get more exposure and with that, they will be more mature and they will start performing. Within another year or two, bigger results will start coming.
'For big tournaments like the Asian Championships and Thomas and Uber Cup, we will prepare for that. We have the likes of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shettry, who are great doubles players. They are coming back from injury. In women's doubles, we have Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. Because we have limited big players right now, so when they lose then there is a lot of negativity. They are also under tremendous pressure. Now we are banking on the doubles players and singles exponents like PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy. They will support us in the next two years. By that time, the second line should be ready. This happens in sport."
But the vacuum the country has seen have not been created over the last one year. If a proper system were to be in place, India might have avoided such a phase.
"We have to form a backup with U-15 to U-19 players. Earlier, we had two camps; one in Hyderabad and another in Bengaluru for seniors round the year. Junior camps used to be held before Asian Championships, Worlds, or during other events. Now, we have started an NCOE (National Centre of Excellence) where they will train for 365 days a year. Everyone is training and playing together and going for exposure trips as well. Juniors used to train in their own academies earlier. Now, we will have the line."
