CHANDIGARH, SEPT 7: The Badminton Coaches Welare Association of India has strongly criticised Vimal Kumar's recent press statement that all Sports Authority of India coaches are ``no good and all former internationals who are imparting coaching are good coaches.''BCWAI secretary Gursharan Singh said,``It is not fair to compare quacks with qualified doctors.'' He said,``It is not necessary that a good player would also be a good coach. Coaching is a science. With present trend of sports development, it plays a vital role for achieving excellence.'' This opportunity is provided by Sports Authority of India National Institute of Sports to the coaches undergoing training at the institute.He further added,`` A qualified coach is like a person in the dark alley with a torch in hand and on the other hand unqualified coach is a person probing in the dark alley without any light. The association has advised that it would be proper and more in place if instead of slinging mud, Vimal Kumar should acquire the qualifications, produce results by picking up beginners from the grassroot level and make him or her a world beater."The association has asked three questions from Vimal Kumar. 1. Has he not learnt badminton from NIS coach Shivarama Krishna attached to the Kerala Sports Council? 2. Has he produced any player till date? 3. Are most of the players he claims to be coaching are not trained by the SAI coaches?The association alleged that a number of international players have left the academy where he is imparting training.The BCWAI alleged that due to wrong training given by Vimal Kumar, former national champion Dipankar Bhattacharya suffered injuries and had to leave the game.``The players have left or gone down in their performance in spite of the academy providing them the best facilities like indoor stadium and enough shuttle cocks. Whereas the SAI coaches work under `very difficult' conditions as the basic amenities as infrastructure required for the game is not available.Still, the SAI coaches produce good players, claimed the association. In its support, the association has quoted the names of a few top SAI coaches who have produced topclass players. They are: SM Arif, Pitamber Singh, Muralidharan, Sanjeev Sachdev, Bhaskar Babu, Ganguly Prasad, Surjit Singh, Ashok Mehta, Vinod Narayan and Surinder Mahajan.The association regretted that a badminton academy, started by Prakash Padukone, with the best facilities, should have Vimal Kumar looking after the training aspect.
