‘Indian Badminton on right track’

The French Open winner who is working with Indian Oil said that skillwise Indians are the best in the world. “In fact,the Indians were always quite good in terms of skill. The only thing that they lacked in was fitness and facilities. Now by achieving these two factors also,we are now at par with the nations who have dominated the game in the past.”

Popat said that due to the present scoring system and also because the young shuttlers “do not have so much of patience” these days,the style of play in badminton has become quite aggressive. “But you can be a match winner despite having a defensive approach like Abhinn Shyam Gupta who did the country proud in the international arena,” she added.

About her week-long coaching which began on Sunday morning,Aparna said with an admirable simplicity,“ I cannot call myself a coach. You can call it my experiment in coaching. I have my job commitments also. I will give a thought about coaching youngsters whenever possible but I am always open to giving tips to the players.”

The silver medallist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games and bronze medallist at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games said that India has bright prospects in badminton in the Commonwealth Games 2010 and it should not aim for anything less than a gold. “Players should only be careful about dealing with home pressure.”

The talented shuttler who stopped playing competitive badminton two years back,was full of praise for former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand’s badminton academy. “ I have visited the Academy. It is doing a fantastic job. Gopichand’s coaching talent and his efforts in this direction are his greatest gift to the nation.”

The 32-year-old shuttler was all praise for the facilities at the UP Badminton Academy at Lucknow.

“The facilities here are a big boon. The Academy hosted the prestigious Modi Badminton recently which must have been a source of inspiration to the young badminton trainees of the state.