While all the excitement around the end of the year in Indian badminton is centred around the arrival of high-profile foreign coaches, a post-Olympics conversation with Pullela Gopichand deserves a nuanced retelling. He believed Lakshya Sen, who missed the medal narrowly, had given a very good account of himself in Paris and deserved a pat on the back for how he played. Gopichand then proceeded to ungrudgingly praise coach Vimal Kumar for pouring his heart into bringing an Indian men’s singles player closest to an Olympic medal.
“We are invested in their careers. Losses keep us awake at night,” he had said.
This last week, Bangalore coach Arvind Bhat – in a blunt assessment of challenges Indian coaches face – echoed the same words: “Personally Lakshya reaching semis was excellent – he could well have lost earlier or not gotten out of group stage. But yes, it was disappointing even for Prakash (Padukone) Sir and us, because he reached a stage from where he could’ve won a medal. The way he played, beating Viktor or Lee Zii Jia wasn’t far. And yes, Vimal Sir worked his guts off these last few years on Lakshya,” he said.
Around the same time in December of 2023, Parupalli Kashyap who had started working with Kidambi Srikanth as coach, had taken exception to the phrase “promptly lost the opener’ in a match report, saying it sounded like a “roast.” He then went into the dissonance of the general public either not comprehending, or not appreciating, the enormity of what all Srikanth had achieved in his career – World No 1, Super Series titles, World Championship silver, only because his tendency to make unforced errors, usually sprayed smashes as he went for the lines, blighted recent appraisals of his game.
Those within the badminton fraternity, understood exactly what struggles of injuries, the wobbly knee, the cagey ankle, the frozen back, wrecked brilliantly talented careers in men’s singles. They knew exactly why Srikanth was copping losses, and his closest coaches though urging him privately to up his fitness-game, could see the signs of the flailing struggle. Someone like HS Prannoy sought out Gurusaidutt in his corner, not because he came with great Super Series winning credentials. But precisely for the opposite reason – they knew exactly how tough it is. To give it everything, but not win an Olympic medal, and sometimes not even qualify.
Anup Sridhar’s win over Taufik Hidayat at the 2007 Worlds didn’t satiate him enough, and plotting on behalf of the next generation, is an obsession, like it is for Kashyap, Guru and Bhat. Chetan Anand, once considered the most elegant of shuttlers, is trying all he can at his academy in Hyderabad. Countless academies big and small labour over the question. For the fraternity, Kashyap went further than Gopichand at the Olympics, and Srikanth went further than Kashyap, and Lakshya went the furthest of them all, even if none of it amounted to a podium. It’s why they don’t dismiss Lakshya’s 4th place finish as a nothing result, for they know how tough it is to lock that medal down.
It is for these reasons of empathy that Indian men’s badminton continues producing coaches, who set high standards like Vimal, Padukone or Gopichand, who judge themselves rather brutally, as they try to crack the men’s singles medal code.
The players are also a curious community of champions – a group that won the 2022 Thomas Cup, the World Cup of Badminton – and most of India simply didn’t register the enormity of the feat. Chirag Shetty, a doubles champ, couldn’t wrap his head around why he got trolled before the Olympics for desiring to be recognised as a world winner. Men’s badminton in India often finds itself looked past, if not downright snubbed. It’s what steels the Indian coach’s resolve even more.
Bhat retired from BPCL to take up full-time coaching at his Simply Sports Foundation academy, but it took him a decade to take that plunge, after taking care of his family. Kashyap won Commonwealth Games in 2014, but is driven by a blazing ambition to build a new champion, with brains to match that decision. Guru quietly and meticulously goes about his job. And Vimal and Sagar Chopda have been plodding away at PPBA to find the best coaching capsules in Bangalore. “There is very good competition between the academies, but we all have a point to prove,” Bhat says.
The struggles are real. The structure and building costs of an academy can be anywhere between Rs 4 to 8 crores, but the running costs run into 1.5 crore to produce a champion. Just the cost of shuttles goes up to 40 lakh a year. Then there are salaries of a foreign coach, local sparring, physio, trainers, dieticians. The coach needs to travel for tournaments. “It’s why Indian coaches deserve the support of governments and corporates,” Bhat says.
It’s never been a fight between foreign coaches and Indian ones. “Many of our foreign coaches come with great credentials – Park Tae Sang or Mathias Boe, who was Olympic medallist and a legend, so their remuneration, and very decent salaries are justified. But I’ve also seen Vimal (Kumar) Sir slog very, very hard and get big results. So Indian coaches can be very capable, and there is merit in them deserving to be paid equally or them thinking ‘Why can’t we be paid on par?’” Bhat wonders.
Their reasons and motivations for producing a champion have partly been to help another Indian win what they couldn’t, using all the experience and mistakes from their own slightly incomplete playing careers – where the Men’s Singles Olympic medal didn’t happen. It’s a very personal quest. These coaches won’t stop their journey just because their efforts aren’t recognised. But taking them for granted is also silly and short-sighted. Something to mull over in 2025.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
