Sindhu's victory aside, coach Gopichand concerned over Indian badminton's future

On Sunday, the entire nation was kept on the edge of its seats while a resilient P V Sindhu annihilated World No.3 Nozomi Okuhara. Exactly minutes after Sindhu clinched gold at the World Championship, the whole country rejoiced in her glory. But coach Pullela Gopichand feels the celebration might be short-lived, as the country has not ‘invested enough in coaches’.

Sindhu became the first world champion of India when she clinched the BWF World Championship title with a straight-game victory over Okuhara of Japan in the final. However, Gopichand feels there is a necessity for the country to have enough number of coaches in order to recognise and prioritise the talent that is rising. Speaking at a press conference in Hyderabad on Tuesday night, he exclaimed, “...we have not invested enough in coaches.”

He added, “We actually have a big vacuum in terms of producing coaches of quality and it’s not a training program. It’s an ecosystem issue. So, we need to work harder to bridge that gap.”

There is a need to invest in more foreign coaches like South Korea’s Kim Ji-Hyun is what the Dronacharya awardee believes and that it is only then that the sporting talent will be truly recognised and dealt with. He said that India needs more coaches who are able to strategise for matches against star performers like Lin Dan. “That we have not achieved. Hopefully, when this generation of people retires, we will actually get these people. If these people get back into coaching, then we’ll actually get back numbers which are required,” he said, according to a PTI report.