The number of local coaches could have increased, but their exit rate is also considering better remunerated opportunities is quite high, and the Badminton Association of India (BAI) is now preparing a roadmap in association with Sports Authority of India (SAI) to stop the exodus. The node of this joint proposal is an increase in remuneration for coaches. Over the past three years, the best names such as Parundalli Kashyap and RMV Gurusaidutt have gone to full -time training, causing the cream of male singles such as HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat.
Under the direction of the national coach Pullela Gopichand, they also work with young talents like Tharun Mannepalli, Anmol Kharb, Anuradha Upadhyaya and Rakshitha Ramraj.
The old pair of male male from Manu Atri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who represented India at Asian Games and the Olympic Games, focused on training young double players.
The duo was seen with foreign coach Tan Kim Her in the double matches at Open India.
But on the other hand, many renowned coaches have left Indian configuration after years of hard work due to the lack of financial awards. Mohammed Siyadatullah Siddiqui, who supervised stars like Saina Nehwal and Srikanth, moved to the Badminton Academy of Oregon in the United States last year.
B Sai Praneeth, a bronze medalist from the World Championships and Olympian from Tokyo, retired from Badminton International to play a role as coach in an American club in March 2024.
Arun Vishnu, who has developed stars like Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, is the last one to go back to Nagpur to take care of his aging stepfather.
“I think we have to improve the salary of Indian coaches, or they will not stay long,” Arun told PTI.
“It’s good if we are hiring foreign coaches for 8,000 to 10,000 USD, but the problem is that Indian coaches are not paid even a quarter, perhaps. This is the problem.” BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra admitted the issue and said the plans had been extinguished to remedy it.
“The salary of the support staff, including physiotherapists and trainers, has been increased from 50 to 75% on their existing slab and have received the wages revised for four months. Now, Bai plans to propose the salaries of the coaches of the national camp,” he said.
Arun said that while coaches in the United States earn between 8,000 and 10,000 USD per month, the Indian coaches employed by PSUs receive around 50,000 rupees per month for their services in Badminton, and this also started about a year and a half before the Paris Olympic Games.
“None of the Indian coaches will be ready to help the national team. Why would they want to give the players to this sport; there is a lot of pride. But if they go to the United States or to another country, they will certainly receive a good salary, or if you open an academy, you will have better prospects,” he said.
Mishra said: “Currently, coaches receive an allowance, but according to a new proposal on which we work, eight coaches of the national camp will be placed under foreign coaches brought to various centers, with a substantial salary increase. This will also include former players and we will seek to integrate them into the camp.” The BAI also organized the very first development program for coaches across the country in March of last year to provide uniformity to basic coaching.
But the question remains about the reason why the current coaches, who have played at the highest level and form budding talents in their respective academies, are not integrated into the national configuration.
India has a pool of former experienced players like Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhat, Chetan Anand and Jwala Gutta, but none is part of the coache system, most of them creating their own academies.
Sridhar, who briefly trained Lakshya Sen and the PV Sindhu, should take over as a male chief coach of the Singapore Badminton Association.
“We have many experienced players who probably do not need additional advice to train elite players. Let’s take Anup for example, he joins Singapore, there is (Hans-Kristian Solberg) Vittinghus taking over as a male coach in Denmark,” said Kashyap.
“The work of a coach is not only a teaching technique, but also to trace the whole calendar for the players, to guide them to manage the injuries, etc. and who better than someone who was there and has done this. There are very few names that have reached the summit of the world classification of India. It is time that we trust us.
“If our retired players have received an appropriate designation, compensation and opportunities, this would have made a change to the Indian badminton. How long will we continue to hire foreign coaches?” Bai recently hired Tan Kim of Malaysia as a double coach for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and Irwansyah Adi Pratama of Indonesia to focus on the players of female singles, especially on Sindhu.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been published by NDTV staff and is published from a unionized flow.)
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