The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Denmark opens the doors to Indians

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Saturday, Aug 27, 2005

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Sport - Badminton

Denmark opens the doors to Indians

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: In a move that would have a very positive impact on Indian badminton, the Danish Federation has opened its doors to Indian players to train in Denmark and participate in the Danish league.

The first beneficiary would be the National champion, Anup Sridhar, who would be having a base in Skaelskor Club, near Copenhagen and train there for a year. Sridhar left for Denmark on Thursday.

Explaining the concept, the chief National coach, U. Vimal Kumar, told The Hindu: "This is a major step to lift the standard of the Indian players, who have been stagnating.

Unlike tennis, opportunities to train abroad are limited for Indian badminton players as major nations that dominate the game like China, Malaysia and Indoneisa, don't permit outsiders to train there for a long duration. Even Denmark was like that a few years ago. But things have changed there and our constant interaction with them has helped in opening the doors."

Prakash's rapport helps

He said that Prakash Padukone's personal rapport with the Danish coaches like Morten Frost, has helped PPBA to send Anup Sridhar, after getting the clearance from BAI.

"For Anup, eveything will be taken care of by the Danish Federation, including his stay, airfare and training costs. He will get an opportunity to train with leading Danish players. He should consider himself really fortunate to get this kind of exposure, for he is not globally ranked in a big way and the only player to get that kind of break was Prakash Padukone, in the early 1980s, but then Prakash was already the World No. 1 during that time," said Vimal.

Chetan gets the nod

Another Indian player to get the nod was Chetan Anand, but he has to find a sponsor for his trip to Denmark. He along with his player-wife, Jwala Gutta, are likely to train in Aarhus, under Frost.

"The only way to bring quality to Indian badminton is to allow foreign players in our tournaments, unfortunately that's not been happening in a big way now, so the other option would be is to send players with potentials for such training stints. I hope Anup uses the opportunity well. In the long run, similar chances could be provided to talented juniors like Jishnu Sanyal, Anand Pawar, P. Kashyap, Ajay Jayararam and Sagar Chopda," said the coach.

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