There is excellent depth in Indian men’s badminton, not so in women: Dinesh Khanna

He was the first Indian to win an Asian badminton championship title in 1965. Yet, Dinesh Khanna had nothing coming his way by way of rewards. “Nothing,” Khanna, looking fitter than his 74 years, told DNA on Friday evening here. Khanna had come all the way from New Delhi to be the guest speaker at his India team-mate Nandu Natekar’s 84th birthday at the Legends Club at Cricket Club of India.

“We had to buy our own shuttle cocks, racquet and kit. People used to tell me, ‘You have done well despite the system’. Things are much better organised now. Nothing of this sort then. SAI is giving a big financial help. Gopichand academy and Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy have done a great job. After winning two medals at the Olympic level, the game has become more popular.” Khanna said, sipping an orange squash.

He called the current scenario as “golden era of badminton in India”.

“We have had two Olympic medallists. We have them winning Superseries title. For the first time, we had two Indian men enter the Superseries final (Sai Praneeth vs Kidambi Srikanth in Singapore Open in April). India is the fourth country to do that. I had a lot of hopes earlier also from Sai Praneeth. But he was a little deficient in fitness. He has worked on it for the last four months and that has yielded results. Fitness is the key today, the intensity of the game is so high that unless you are at peak fitness, you cannot do well,” Khanna said.

Khanna was pleased with the depth in Indian men’s badminton, but not so with the women. “As far as men are concerned, we have an excellent depth. Fourteen players are in the first 100 rank, five in the first 30. That is great going. In women, we have two outstanding players in Saina (Nehwal) and (PV) Sindhu. Saina has to get her fitness back. I am a little concerned about the depth in women’s badminton. The second string is rather weak. We have to work on that.”

He said that the doubles and mixed doubles have been India’s weak link. “With Malaysian coach (Tan Kim Her), they have not really given any outstanding performances so far but the scores in Superseries have been getting better. I hope in Grand Prix and other tournaments, we will get good performances.”

Khanna hoped that more regional-based academies will help current shuttlers and also called for more and more former India internationals and state-level players to come forward to take up coaching.

“Recently Badminton Association of India had some brainstorming. They are coming up with a proposal to have regional academies. It can be more broad based. In younger age-groups, if you have one academy in a region, children at younger age will be more comfortable if they are closer to home. When you are looking at a higher level, they may have to be at a centralised academy,” Khanna, who himself oversees an academy in New Delhi, said.

On the coaches, he said: “We are so far dependent on foreign coaches to some extent. A lot of the top players are absorbed by corporates and they go out of coaching stream. Some of them, though, do it privately. How far that will yield results will have to be seen.

“We have to involve some of our own internationals. Some players who have played at good state level can also be brought into the coaching stream. Today, multi-feed, where you feed the player with shuttles, has become very important. If they are guided in that, we can have effective coaching. Sports Authority of India has a fixed amount that is paid to them. Those working in Public Sector are not paid anything. They do not have any incentive. They have to have a relook at them. If you can give a huge amount to a foreign coach, you can also give a decent amount to an Indian coach.”