‘No time to rectify mistakes anymore’ ›

DUBAI: With the badminton calendar getting tighter, players hardly get any time to fix the chinks in their armour. It will get tougher with BWF making it compulsory for players to take part in a certain number of tournaments.

India national coach Pullela Gopichand, who has been quite vocal in his opposition to the new participation rules put in by the BWF, feels everything will need to be done on the go.

“We play on the trot so if you have a problem there is no time for you to take a break. Every morning on the tour is a morning to improve your game, look at physical issue and technical issues and you have to iron out mistakes on the road. There is no option, with the BWF scheduling, of taking a break and getting physically and mentally up there,” said Gopichand on the sidelines on the Premier Badminton League promotional event on Monday.

BURNOUT?

The extended schedule has players talking about burnout but Gopichand feels players shouldn’t think too much about it. “The way I would look at it (burnout) is not to look at it because we don’t have an option. I think let us not even take that route and instead focus on how do you keep players going as there is no option of slowing down. It is very important to be extremely positive about our group of players and ensure that your mistakes are eradicated,” he added.

Speaking about PBL and where it’s heading, Gopichand feels it has a bright future. “Badminton as a sport has grown tremendously over the last few years. That makes up for a bigger, better PBL. To say with a matter of pride that when we were looking at the first edition, we were looking at top players and Indians. Today, many of the top players are Indians that gives us lot of depth. Overall, very happy to see this year’s field and the larger interest of the sport across the country culminating,” said Gopichand.

Breaking even is the key aspect of any venture and event organiser Sportzlive’s executive director Prasad Mangipudi said that they are ready to bleed for a few years but see the league become a money spinner sooner rather than later.

From this year, Mangipudi informed, every team will have a junior player which will help his development by interacting and learning from the biggest stars in the game. NEW DELHI: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) plans to abolish the system of ‘wild card’ from next edition of the national shooting championship. Rajiv Bhatia, NRAI secretary, says, “This is being done to maintain a good standard at the national level.” This year over 800 applicants applied for wild card to compete in the 61st national shooting championship in rifle and pistol that gets underway from Tuesday at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

We play on the trot so if you have a problem there is no time to take a break and getting physically and mentally up there. PULLELA GOPICHAND, badminton coach