Slamming India's top shuttlers for being"complacent" in international events, chief national coach U. VimalKumar has called for putting the players under greater pressure and scrutiny sothat they may deliver in the world arena.
"I have been a little hard on the players becauseI feel they are not put under enough scrutiny and pressure," Vimal, who hasbeen appointed to the post till the 2006 Commonwealth Games, said in aninterview.
"In my opinion, a player who has been playingcontinuously for five or six years of international badminton, if he or she isnot able to get to a certain stage, it's a sure sign of complacency," hesaid.
Advertisement
Vimal said his assessment applied to all top Indianshuttlers without exception and he was not singling out anybody.
However, he added in the same breath: "But again,they (the top players) are all very talented and have the capability. Mycontention is the sort of commitment they show in domestic tournaments andgetting into the team, if they show that sort of drive in international events,we can get much better results.
"Going into a tournament looking for an easy draw and then coming back andsaying it was a tough draw. Such things definitely won't help," Vimalcommented.
The coach said if he had his way, he would have theplayers play a mixture of big and small international events, rather thanparticipating in only top meets.
Advertisement
"Otherwise, you keep reading this player lost inthe first round, this player lost in the second round. That's not very good andthat's because we are playing in only big events. It should be a mixture of bigand small events."
India's top woman shuttler Aparna Popat, ranked 23 inthe world, is the only Indian to get a direct entry to the Athens Olympic Gamesin August.
National men's champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta and NikhilKanetkar, ranked 44th and 48th in the world, respectively, have an outsidechance to qualify for the mega event if some players withdraw before the event.
Abhinn is currently number two on the 'waiting list'and is highly likely to make the Olympic cut.
PTI
