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A Window into Indian Badminton
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January-February 2008
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Vol. 1. No. 4
MEN DON’T CRY
CHETAN ANAND was authoritative in his defence of his national title, but JWALA GUTTA tells Dev S Sukumar her husband nearly quit the game last year after being under tremendous stress THIS year Chetan played well, and he was comfortable right through. He never struggled in any match. A lot of people ask if he had a point to prove by winning the title. But he was already a two-time national champion. What was left to prove? He was relieved to show to those who don’t know badminton. He’s been training quite hard. Arif Sir has changed his training schedule — in terms of weight training, building his dynamic power, more of agility, jumps, and so on. Physically, I’d say he’s really fit now. Mentally, he has to come out of all that hurt him last year, he has to get beyond it. He was really down last year, and there was so much pressure. He had worked hard last year too, but because of the things that happened… he was very frustrated. He had trained under Morten Frost in Denmark in 2005. Morten’s training had helped him immensely. He wanted to go back in 2006 and 2007, but (national
INSIDE 4
GOPICHAND exclusive interview
The whole of last year was such a waste. It still hurts. Men don’t cry — but Chetan would be almost in tears every day. He hardly
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ANAND PAWAR shines at Austrian International
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coach) Gopi didn’t allow him. The lack of international exposure too hurt, as we were out of international tournaments for three months. He slipped to no.48.
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Editorial India disappoints VIMAL on coaching
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GUTS - A Window into Indian Badminton
Editorial... Badminton seems to hit the headlines only at times of controversy, so it wasn’t surprising that the public was inquisitive when the ridiculous drama at the national camp in Goa was being played out. The camp was cancelled apparently due to a shortage of shuttlecocks, but the bigger issue was that BAI and SAI traded charges on who should have prepared for the camp. India had a terrible outing at the Thomas and Uber cup preliminaries, and one wonders if the cancellation of the camp had anything to do with it. The men finished fifth in the Asian Zone, that too without Indonesia and China — a come down from 2006 when the same team had qualified for the final rounds. In the Uber Cup, the women fought well, but the opposition was always going to be daunting. Aditi Mutatkar’s wins over Anita Raj Kaur and Soratja C, and Saina Nehwal’s defeat of Jun Jae Youn and Salakjit Ponsana were the bright sparks — but why was the doubles combination of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien changed? At the same time the Thomas and Uber preliminaries were on, a young man raced to his first international title. Anand Pawar won the Austrian Open without dropping a set. Here’s wishing the intense 21-year-old the very best! Meanwhile, media coverage of cricket's IPL makes one wonder if it isn't time for a league in badminton as well! Any takers?
BQ
Check your Badminton Quotient Anand Pawar is the son of former internationals Uday and Sujatha. Name the current Indonesian international whose father was Uday’s contemporary.
January-February 2008
India fail to impress MALAYSIA'S men and South Korea's women won the Asian Zone qualifiers of the Thomas and Uber cup respectively, in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City from Feb. 19-24 Malaysia beat South Korea 3-2 in the final match on Feb 24, and South Korea surprised the Japanese 3-1. Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Thailand proceed to the Thomas Cup final rounds, while South Korea, Japan and Malaysia qualified for the Uber Cup final rounds, to be held in mid-May in Jakarta. The Indian men performed below expectations. Pitted against Pakistan and Japan in Group C, they beat Pakistan comfortably in the first match, but fell 0-5 to Japan, a match that should have been won. They then expectedly fell 0-3 to Malaysia. However, they earned consolation wins against Singapore (3-2) and Hong Kong (3-0) to finish fifth. Only the top four teams made it to the final rounds. The Indian women were grouped with Malaysia and went down 1-3, with Saina Nehwal falling to Wong Mew Choo in a tough three-setter; Aditi Mutatkar beat Anita Raj Kaur, but the rest of the team failed. Saina put India ahead against Korea with a good win over Jun Jae Youn. Aditi, playing second singles, lost a close first game against Hwang Hye Youn, but Korea did not have any problems from then on. In the playoff (5th to 8th place), Saina beat Salakjit Ponsana; Kunchala/ Duanganong thrashed Shruti/ Aparna Balan; Aditi restored the lead by beating Soratja C; Saina/ Jwala lost a thriller to Saralee/ Sapsiree 21-18 in the third; and Sayali fell tamely in the last match to Porntip B. Denmark topped the European Zone qualifiers in both events. Germany finished third; while England (Thomas Cup) and Holland (Uber Cup) are the other entrants from this zone.
S for Success
Sindhu Bharadwaj, trainee at Prakash Padukone’s academy, won the ‘Best Student Award’ at her school for her remarkable performance in her seventh standard exams. A student of Cluny Convent, Malleswaram, Sindhu got 100 percent marks in three subjects — Maths, Physics and History. She received the award at the Parents’ Day function on January 26. Sindhu has also excelled at music and bharatanatyam. She has scored a distinction (88%) in her bharatanatyam board exams. She finds time for music and bharatanatyam on weekends. “Even if you’re busy, you can squeeze time for everything,” says the little champion. Given her busy badminton schedule, she prepares for her academics by noting down the main points while the teacher is taking lessons. She then revises the notes at the end of each day. “There is no pressure from my parents, coaches, or teachers,” she says. “My school has been supportive. When I had to attend a tournament in Pune, they gave me three tests ahead of schedule.” Sindhu’s parents, Raghavendra and Manonmani, can be found each day by the courtside during her practise sessions. Raghavendra is a successful real estate businessman, while Manonmani is a full-time badminton mom. Sindhu's record is in keeping with tradition, for badminton players are generally known for being good at academics. Sindhu Bharadwaj. Born: 4 January 1995. Idols: Prakash Padukone, Lin Dan. Ruth Misha: “because she has achieved success through hard work”. Arvind Bhat for “being good at studies” and because “he won four international titles after coming back from injury."
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Grooming a champion-3
The age between 11 and 16 is the time to mould the child. That’s when they have to go through hardships, and that toughens them. Parents should realise that each child progresses at a different pace. Some develop quickly; others much later. The coach will know whether the child can excel, and should tell the parents. Also, parents should not get carried away with success at lower age groups. They should treat it as normal. This is a series in which former national coach VIMAL KUMAR will help parents prepare their children for competitive sport.
Winners of December quiz: 1. M.D. Murali, 2. Sindhu Bharadwaj 3.Parvati 4. John Answer: ECA Arattukulam State Ranking Tournament, Bangalore
ANAND READS GUTS. DO YOU?
January-February 2008
GUTS - A Window into Indian Badminton
‘China has set the model’
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Pullela GOPICHAND has been a controversial coach ever since he took over two years ago. His ideas on the national camp and selection have not gone down well with players and other coaches. In this two-part interview with TR BALACHANDRAN, Gopi defends his ideas and explains what India needs to do to be a world-beater:
See, my only concern is — we only produce good players. There’s no doubt about it. We’ve had players right from Manjusha, Deepankar, Neelima, Nikhil, Sachin, Abhinn, Krishna Deka. All of them could have been world level players. I’m not even talking about people like Praveen Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Ajay Gandhi, Jaseel, Marcose and Vinod Kumar, who I thought were all phenomenal players, who could have done exceptionally well at the international level.
After two years as national coach, what are your reactions to the job?
But where we falter is: where are these guys at the next level? That’s a problem we’ve had. We’ve not been able to make sure these guys move to the top world level. I’m not talking about world top 30, we’ve always had players of that level. But are we ready to produce players for the next level? For that I think we need a systemic change. If we were doing things right till now, we should have been producing good players. It’s better to do something, rather than repeat the same things over and over. That’s been my idea of how things should be. All said and done, China follows the best system because they produce the best results. Whether we are ready or not — people say we are not China — but if you want to produce results, we should at least follow the model. If not that, what is the next alternative? Well, there’s no alternative to hard work.
Things have been good. It has been a good stint, although there are still improvements we can do. We have a lot of potential that’s still not used properly. We still are a couple of steps away from reaching the top ladder of world badminton. I hope to see that this year. How different is coaching from playing top level badminton? The challenges are higher, because you’re dealing with different mindsets, so there’s a lot of human management. Whereas as a top level player you just shut yourself and keep away from people and focus on the sport. But as a coach who wants others to do well, there’s a lot of different aspects you have to take in. I played my best at 27 when I won the All England. Although I had results from 20 or 21, it was not consistent. I just wish that if I can get the best out of players at an early age, they can play higher level badminton for a longer period. Can someone who has played international badminton make a good coach, or somebody who has gone through the regular process of coaches’ education, but who might not have played badminton at a high level? It’s not about who; it’s the mindset that’s important, the willingness and enthusiasm to learn. We can’t generalize. It’s about enthusiasm to help, the sense of understanding that you don’t know everything. If that’s there, whether you are a great player or not is not the criteria… it helps if you are a player, especially when you have to talk to them. Given a free hand in administration, how would you like to function?
Men don't...
According to you, a centralised model is the ideal? I benefited the most, without a doubt, when the Chinese coach was there in Delhi. In 1989 and 1990, I was the first round loser in nearly every tournament. One camp changed things for me totally. And the 1-1/2 years I was at the camp with the Chinese coach. I won my first junior nationals in Goa. And I thought we were playing very good badminton then — Deepankar, Manjusha, Sushant Saxena, Ajay Kanwar, Jaseel, Vincent. This whole group played fantastic in those two years. We have the skill. What we need is the discipline and the work ethic that the Chinese can bring. We have had problems with the government not clearing many of them (Chinese coaches), across all sports. The effort is on.
Read Part-2 of this interview in our next edition: Gopi outlines his ideas for a national training programme.
ever slept. He’s a lot like Prakash (Padukone) Sir, he’s non-controversial and has never hurt anybody. And yet, people were out to harm his career, and there was so much nonsense being said in the press. All those statements were hurtful. He’s still hurting, but he’s not letting anyone see it. He said he wanted to quit badminton, but I kept telling him we had to fight it out. And the whole of last year he was playing extraordinarily. I thought Gopi basically
had a problem with me, and that Chetan was getting caught in between, so I was prepared to quit. One year in a player’s career is a long time, you know. Media should get their facts right. They only quote us, they don’t come and see for themselves. There was a report that Chetan, me and Shruti hadn’t turned up at the selection trials last year, but the fact is that we had! I wish they would verify for themselves before reporting. Badminton has gone back 20-30 years. There’s no hope for it.
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GUTS - A Window into Indian Badminton
January-February 2008
Austrian delight for Pawar TWENTY-ONE year-old Anand Pawar became the second Indian player after the late Syed Modi to win the Austrian Open Men’s singles title at Vienna on Feb 22. Pawar, ranked 124 in the world, was placed in the qualifying rounds but promoted to the main draw. On the way to the title, he beat several players ranked above him without losing a set. In the final he beat Ukrainian veteran Vladislav Druzchenko (ranked 60) in straight games 21-16, 21-15. This is his first major international tournament title. Anand is the son of former internationals Uday and Sujatha Pawar. The women’s singles title was lifted by Zang Xi of China who beat Anu Nieminen of Finland 19-21,21-13,21-9. "It definitely feels good to finally win a tournament after getting to so close so many times.There was a bit of pressure before the final as a lot of people there were saying that I would win and I myself knew that, so I just tried not to think about the match and kept myself busy," Anand told GUTS. In the semifinals Pawar beat England No.3 Nathan Rice at 21-14, 21-8 and Ville Lang (Finland) in the quarterfinals. His biggest result was, however, in the second round, beating Austria’s Juergen Koch 22-20, conc. In the first round he had beaten Sweden’s Magnus Sahlberg 21-14, 21-13. "I had quite a few good wins in the tournament, against players like Magnus Sahlberg, Juergen Koch and Ville Lang, who have beaten many of our other Indian players and my wins over them were quite convincing as well, so it's a good feeling."
GUTS will be bringing you special coverage of the All England. Our correspondent Dev S Sukumar will be covering the event from Birmingham.
The late Syed Modi won the Austrian Open back in 1984. Anand’s win is bound to improve his international ranking and he is likely to figure in the top 100. Anand said he hadn't prepared specifically for the tournament and that his training regime had gone on as usual. "I haven't done anything different with my training programme as such. I prepared for it only for a week before in Bangalore as we had gone to Goa for a short holiday before the camp and rushed to Bangalore after it was called off." Pawar wasn’t part of the Thomas Cup which had a poor outing. The Austrian Open win comes after several promising performances on the Indian circuit, most notably the semifinal placing at the National Championships in Goa in January and the runner-up slot at the Canara Bank All India Open at Bangalore in December. Prior to that, he had reached the semifinals of the Scottish Open, losing to Japan’s Kenichi Tago in a thrilling three-setter. Tago went on to win the title beating Germany’s Bjoern Joppien. Dear GUTS readers, The next issue will be an "All England Championships" special. The advertisement tariff for this special issue is given below.
Advertisement Tariff Front page (@ 100 mm x 85mm): Rs. 10,000 Back page (@ 120 mm x 85 mm): Rs. 10,000 Inside bottom strip (@ 175 mm x 30 mm): Rs. 5,000 Front page ear panel (@ 35 mm x 20 mm): Rs. 5,000 Editor: Dev S. Sukumar. Printed & Published by Dev Sukumar and Thomas J. Kunnath. P4, KSSIDC Industrial Area, Mahadevapura, Bangalore - 560 048. Printed at National Printing Press, Koramangala, Bangalore-560 095. Email: thomas@kunnath.in