Coimbatore: Top ranked Indian shuttler PV Sindhu feels that India needs good quality coaches if more players are to come up and make a big career of themselves in the sport.
“While there are many good courts in the country, we need to have good coaches for more players to come up. Not everyone can go to Gopichand academy and everyone cannot afford international tournaments. I have seen the courts in districts and those are really good. I think the coaches have to play a big role in the players’ development,” Sindhu told the reporters on the sidelines of an event, where she promoted “Mission Sports” – an audio visual curriculum for emerging sportspersons.
The world number two Sindhu is one of the top names to have come out of the Gopichand academy in Hyderabad. The academy apart from Sindhu have also trains players like Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap among others who are all part of the top 50 ranked shuttlers in the world.
“I was at the Gopichand academy since I was 10. I was lucky to get good coaches and infrastructure that I needed. To become a champion, it is not just a few months’ practice, it takes years to make a champion,” Sindhu said, pointing to the importance of developing the sport in the grass-root level which frames a player.
The 22-year-old will also compete in the upcoming national championships in which participation has been made compulsory for all the top ranked Indian shuttlers. Taking about it the Rio Olympics silver medalist said, “Definitely, it will be a different experience in comparison to the international tournaments. There are many Indian players who have improved a lot. It will be a good tournament and anyone can win it. It will be great to see all Indian top players slugging it out – it will be great fun.”
While winning a medal in the Olympics as well as in the World Badminton Championships will be a compete circle of achievements for many shuttlers, for Sindhu it has only increased her hunger for more success. “I am very happy with the achievements but this is only the beginning. I have to do a lot more but I will take one at a time,” she said.
Her rivalry with Japanese Nozomi Okuhara whom she met in three back to back finals, losing two while winning one, has become the talk of the town and according to Sindhu, “Okuhara has been doing really well since 2012. When I look back at the game in Glasgow (World Championship), I still feel that if I had won, it would have been something different. But it was not my day. It is not about one particular stroke. I gave everything, it was one point here and there.”
“In Korea, it was one of my longest matches and it was my sweet revenge. May be when I meet her next time, I will get another chance,” she concluded.