CALANGUTE (GOA)
“Goa’s Anura Prabhu Desai who is the Country’s top-ranked shuttler will be in the National Camp soon. Every year, the Badminton Association of India prepares a list of core players and sends it to the Sports Authority of India. The list is revised yearly and as Anura attained the number one ranking status a few months back, she could not be included in the camp mid-season”. This was announced by Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BAI President in response to Goa Badminton Association Secretary Sandeep Heble’s query during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), held in Calangute, Goa. The AGM was held primarily to elect the new set of office bearers for the BAI term from June 2018-2022 and to finalize the calendar for the coming season.
Venues for various Nationals and All India Ranking tournaments were finalised at the AGM. Goa has been allotted the Indian Masters (Veterans) Badminton Nationals. The Sub Junior (U13) Nationals will be held in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh while the Sub Junior (U15/17) Nationals will be held in Bangalore, Karnataka. Lucknow will host the Junior (U19) National Badminton championship and Hyderabad will be the venue for the Senior Nationals Badminton championships. One of the most significant decisions taken at the AGM has been to provide a financial grant of Rs 5 lakh to each State Association to develop the game in their respective States while Prize money for National tournaments will also now be awarded by the BAI.
Himanta Biswa Sarma – Assam (President), Ajay Kumar Singhania – Haryana (Gen. Secretary) and Anbumani Ramadoss – Tamil Nadu (Treasurer) were elected along with 39 other office bearers during the AGM held for the first time in Goa. Goa’s Narahar Thakur retained his post as the Jt. Secretary in the BAI Executive. Following the late withdrawal of Rajasthan’s K.K. Sharma, the contest for the post of the Gen. Secretary became a symbolic gesture with Singhania polling 58 out of the 59 eligible votes while all other office bearers were elected unopposed.
Later, addressing a Press Conference, Anura came in for special praise from the National Coach Pulella Gopichand, who said “I saw her play at the Nationals. She is quite a good talent and seemed like a very hard working girl on the court. I believe she definitely has the potential to do very well”. In one of the BAI’s first decisions, Sarma, BAI President, announced that the National Federation had appointed Gopichand as the Chief National Coach in Seniors for a further period of 4 years and Chhattisgarh’s Sanjay Mishra as the Junior Coach for a similar period. Gopichand sounded optimistic about the sport’s future. “The numbers in which the sport has grown over the years has been phenomenal. Last few years, there’s been a considerable rise in the number of youngsters who’ve taken up the sport and there’s a lot of talent in the grassroots who have the potential to excel. We are expecting good results from there in the coming years”, said Gopi. The Country’s National Coach and Padma Bhushan recipient in 2014 expressed hope that India would return back with a good haul of medals from the Commonwealth Games.
The outgoing Secretary Anup Narang (Delhi) has been appointed as the official spokesperson of the BAI. “We want to set up more academies. State Governments must support such ventures, otherwise, associations cannot set up such infrastructure on their own. The Executive Committee will be meeting soon and we will come out with a vision document for the next 4 years,” said the BAI President expressing his support the game.
