The Badminton Association of India (BAI) hopes to slowly reduce the culture of personal coaches in favour of group training sessions under national coaches going ahead in the current Olympic cycle.

“We are spending a lot of money on coaches. If a player gets injured, then the coach for that time being can also train other players. Also, in a group, players practice better and improve much more quickly,” BAI secretary general Sanjay Mishra said on Thursday.

“In a competitive environment, they become better players which is why we want them to play and train together. But nothing is final. We will discuss with coaches, how many players they can accommodate as we do not intend to overload them. We will also discuss with the players.”

In recent years, almost all top shuttlers, from PV Sindhu to the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, have enjoyed the services of personal coaches going into tournaments.

The development comes in the wake of BAI approaching foreign coaches to take over the responsibility of Indian shuttlers. The federation has approached Indonesia’s Irwansyah Adi Pratama and Malaysian Tan Kim Her to coach India’s top singles and doubles players respectively. The negotiations are not complete yet.

“We sent them the contract letters only yesterday and they have not accepted it yet. We have given them a week to respond to the contract proposal,” said Mishra, who was appointed BAI secretary general in 2022.

Irwansyah is currently the head coach of the Indonesian singles shuttlers. It has been reliably learnt that his contract with Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) is till December.

While Irwansyah guided two Indonesians – champion Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting – to the men’s singles final of the All England Open in March, there has been some disappointment in Indonesia – where badminton is the most popular sport – after both of them failed to proceed beyond the group stages at the Paris Olympics despite being among the top seeds.

If Irwansyah decides to join, he will coach both men’s and women’s singles Indian shuttlers, replacing Agus Dwi Santoso who was brought in to prepare former world champion Sindhu for the Olympics at the start of the year.

Tan, on the other hand, has coached in India in the past and is credited for bringing Rankireddy and Shetty together as a pair. The Malaysian, who was part of the Indian setup from 2015 to 2019, is currently the doubles coach of the Japanese national team.

Talks between BAI and Tan were held in 2021 and 2022 too but the deal didn’t come through. If he decides to come, Tan will replace Mathias Boe, under whom Rankireddy and Shetty achieved multiple laurels including becoming the first Indian pair to be ranked world No.1.

“These are all plans and nothing has been decided right now. Who will be joining, which players will he be coaching and all that will be decided later but yes this is all in preparation for the Los Angeles 2028 batch,” said Mishra. “Nothing is finalised yet. We will be discussing with the players too and what their wishes are and how we can move forward.”

Multiple Indian badminton players were contacted to comment on the topic but most refused, stating that they haven’t received any intimation yet from BAI. The national versus personal coach topic doesn’t just pertain to badminton but has been a raging debate in other sports like shooting, table tennis and boxing too.

In addition, Dwi Kristiawan will also return to India. He left for Indonesia after his contract expired following the Paris Olympics. Dwi had been part of the Indian setup since 2011 and was asked by BAI to come on board again as a coach and sparring partner for Indian singles shuttlers.

“Yes, he is being brought back as he is comfortable with Indian conditions, having coached here for so many years. He fits in well in the system,” said Mishra.

Sindhu loses

Meanwhile, Sindhu went down 21-17, 16-21, 17-21 to Canadian Michelle Li in the women’s singles Round of 16 of the $420,000 Japan Masters in Kumamoto on Thursday. This brought an end to India’s campaign at the Super 500 event.

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