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Journalism of Courage
Following the announcement of his exit from the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy after 31 years, Indian badminton legend Prakash Padukone said he had done his part in training elite players over the last three decades and would now like to focus on grassroots training.
“It’s been a change for me. I think I have done enough for elite players. We started the academy 31 years ago in 1994. I think we were one of the first, we showed the way and so many academies have come. There are not enough (academies) for the students and enough for the elite players. It also got a little boring, doing the same thing again and again so I thought I should do something different and focus on the grassroots. I’ve completed my first innings and now the second innings has started,” said Padukone who was in Pune on Wednesday to finalise the association between his new venture Prakash Padukone School of Badminton and Poona District Metropolitan Badminton Association’s (PDMBA) Avinash Wardekar Badminton Academy.
“In China, 100 times more children must be playing badminton as compared to India. If we can increase the number of people introduced to the sport, let’s say one lakh, 1,000 out of them will go to the next level, and then some of them will go to the elite level. We have to introduce the sport to more children.” The collaboration between PDMBA and Padukone School will introduce a certified common curriculum along with new technical assessment methods for coaches.
Talking about badminton in India, Padukone said these days, funding is not an issue in badminton and enough money is available for players. “Players get whatever they want and they travel with a whole team. Overall, the standard of badminton in India has improved but we should not be satisfied. Players should have that hunger in them to win big tournaments. We need to focus on mind training for players to perform under pressure situations,” he said.
