A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
Lack of government and corporate interest did not stop para athletes B. Anand Kumar and Girish Sharma
Two para athletes, B. Anand Kumar and Girish Sharma, brought glory to the country when they bagged two gold and one silver medal respectively at the recently concluded Peru Para Badminton Championship.
“I faced many challenges in school and college where I was not allowed to take part in sports. I took this up as a challenge and wanted to achieve something. I then decided to take up badminton and pursued it seriously,” says Anand, who was affected with polio in the right hand and right leg early in his life.
Anand’s first International tournament was the German International Para Badminton Championship in 2001. “Due to lack of experience, I couldn’t win the match then. No coach came forward to help and I used to practice on my own.”
Anand was ranked World No. 1 in singles in 2013 and was the World Champion this year in the Men’s Doubles category. “It took 15 years to win a World Championship,” says Anand, who runs a badminton academy in Bengaluru and also conducts workshops for para-badminton players.
Girish started playing Badminton in 2002. “Since my father is a railway employee, I used to play various sports at the Railway Club. I played a lot of national and inter-national level tournaments after I took up badminton professionally.” “I noticed that we don’t even h av e 10 per cent of the facilities that para athletes of other countries
do. If we get sponsors, we can win many more medals for the country.” says Girish, who missed out on many tournaments because he did not get sponsors and eventually his ranking dropped from World No. 2 (SL2 Class in singles category). He is currently ranked 16 in the singles category in the Wheelchair class.
“No Indians in the normal categories have so far won a gold medal in the World Championship but the para badminton players have. I fail to understand why the government or private companies are not coming forward to help. If you are supporting one sport, why not give all the sports equal treatment?” asks Aditya.
“It is difficult for us to get a job and hence we are left to fund on our own. Getting sponsorship is another task. We keep approaching various organisations for months, compromising on our practice,” adds Girish, who earns his livelihood by coaching in the academy where he practices and dreams of winning an Olympic medal someday.
Aditya and Girish were sponsored by the Hyderabad-based Aditya Mehta Foundation.
“Aditya Mehta and I are planning to start a sports academy where para athletes will get free coaching. For this, we will need support from the government and private organisations. We also plan to have exhibition matches and raise funds,” says Aditya.