Indian Badminton has been struggling with form. They have failed in many tournaments and have had a few podium finishes. After these horrific performances, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) intends to gradually shift away from the culture of private coaching. They will shift towards group training sessions led by national coaches. This is done keeping in mind the upcoming Olympic cycle progresses.
Nearly all of the best shuttlers in recent years, including PV Sindhu and the doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, have benefited from having personal tutors before competitions. This comes after BAI reached out to foreign coaches to assume Indian shuttlers’ responsibilities. Irwansyah Adi Pratama of Indonesia and Tan Kim Her of Malaysia have been contacted, by the federation to teach India’s best singles and doubles players respectively.
The negotiations are still ongoing. At the moment, Irwansyah serves as the Indonesian singles shuttlers’ head coach. According to trustworthy sources, he has a contract with the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) that expires in December. Although Irwansyah led two Indonesians, champion Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, to the All England Open men’s singles final in March. There has been some disillusionment in Indonesia.
Indian Badminton to find a new way
Badminton is the most popular sport, in Indonesia, as both of them. Despite being among the top seeds, did not advance past the Paris Olympics’ group stages. Is BAI sacrificing expertise for control? Although BAI and Tan had discussions in 2021 and 2022, the agreement fell through. Tan will take Mathias Boe’s position if he chooses to attend. Under Boe, Rankireddy and Shetty won numerous accolades.
This includes becoming the first Indian duo to be ranked No. 1 in the world. Many Indian badminton players were asked to speak on the subject. But the majority declined, they claiming that BAI had not yet notified them. In addition to badminton, there has been much discussion about national versus personal coaches in other sports, such as boxing, shooting, and table tennis.
