NIRAJ PRABHU
PANAJI
For India No. 1 Anura Prabhu Desai (World No. 112) from Ponda, this is a very important stage in her career as she embarks on a mission to cement her place among the cream of Indian badminton. Delighted at her progress and determined to improve on her world rankings, Anura has milestone competitions coming up with Uber Cup and US Open.
“All the junior players are working hard and pushing for a place in the premier Indian team. Few years ago, the scene was different...With Asian Games coming up this year, I am going to work very hard and clinch one of the spots in the team alongside Saina and Sindhu,” said Anura during a press conference in the city on Friday.
“Under the captaincy of Saina Nehwal, I am looking to perform well and gain a lot of experience from the Uber Cup opportunity. Overall in training, I am doing a lot of work on physical conditioning especially trying to strengthen my legs,” asserted Anura, who thanked all her coaches, sponsors and well-wishers for supporting her in the ongoing journey.
Anura, who is presently training in Nagpur under national coach for juniors Jibi Verghese, will leave for Delhi on Monday before the Indian team leaves for Thomas and Uber Cup to be held in Bangkok from May 20-27.
Goa Badminton Association (GBA) hailed the historic selection of Anura as the first Goan to be included in the Indian Uber Cup team. Anura, from the age of nine, participated in the competitive local tournaments on her way to learning the fundamentals of the game under the guidance of Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) coaches Vinayak Kamat and Roy Athaide.
Both the Goan coaches were present at the press conference. GBA secretary, Sandeep Heble thanked Anura’s sponsors Geno Pharmaceuticals for their support and called upon other corporates to come up and back the talented shuttlers from
the state.
“Anura seemed weak in her structure as she started to play competitive badminton in Margao, 10 years ago. But her eagerness and grit to win, has powered her to where she is now. I give full credit to her father Santosh Prabhu Desai as he was taking Anura to Margao or Panaji, to train; and to all-India tournaments to compete. Hats off to Santosh and along with that she put in her efforts and that hard work is paying off,” said Kamat.
Meanwhile, the GBA has decided to bring in important reforms in order to take the standard of the game in the state to the next level and help overall development of the sport.
“GBA will present a prize money of Rs 1 lakh to the top performers. The association will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1lakh, for players to participate in the all-India ranking tournaments. GBA are also looking to depute their preliminary coaches at venues permitted by SAG. Also, an important decision taken now is to select a bunch of 20 promising players and they will practice at a centralised venue in North and South Goa, split over a week,” revealed Heble, who also disclosed the plan of the association to come up with a high-profile professional badminton league; women’s festival and tribal festival.
“GBA has also written a letter to sports ministry that they consider providing financial grants to India No 1-ranked shuttler Anura, on the same lines as that for chess GM Anurag Mhamal,”
added Heble.
