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High hopes
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A select group of promising shuttlers will soon head south for a training session at academies run by the past masters of badminton in India.
The Jharkhand Badminton Association (JBA) will send around 35 to 40 players in the age group of 9 to 13 for honing skills at the training centres of Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand in Bangalore and Hyderabad. With Jharkhand often cutting a sorry figure at both senior and junior level national championships, this initiative may turn the tide.
JBA secretary K. Prabhakar Rao told The Telegraph that they would shortlist names from its affiliated district units (around 19) and select the best boys and girls for the 45-day training programme.
“But we hope that our players will be accommodated. I have already held talks. Depending on the rush at the cradles, we may send some of the players to a training centre run by the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Association in Lucknow,” Rao added.
“JBA will bear 50 per cent of the expenses for training while the parents of the trainees will have to share half of it,” Rao, also a joint secretary of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), said.
The senior JBA functionary has talked to coaches at the training hubs to chalk out the special training stint. “During a recent meeting in Bangalore, Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy’s chief coach Vimal Kumar emphasised on sending shuttlers in the age group of 9-13. This is the period when players start peaking,” Rao said.
Significantly, the state outfit has again started to focus on the game after a protracted tug of war with its Jamshedpur unit. The impasse revolved around the formation of a five-member ad hoc panel by the Jamshedpur group, which was challenged by Rao in the high court. The problem stretched over six months before BAI granted provisional recognition to the state outfit.
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