MARGAO
Praveen Shenoy and other members of the Executive Committee of Goa Badminton Association which took charge of the badminton affairs of the state association in April this year have a task at hand.
They have grandiose plans to promote the game in the state and are looking to important inputs from badminton pundits from across the state borders to get the coaching agenda on the right path and in the right direction.
“We are devising a coaching development and grass root development program which will focus on building an ecosystem for growth of badminton in Goa,” said Shenoy in response to a question from The Goan.
“This (coaching development and grass root development program) would require help from Senior coaching consultants with Badminton Association of India and Sports Authority of India (SAI)," he said.
“I am already in talks with senior coaching consultants of BAI and SAI,” he informed.
Closer home, the badminton players till recently had the services of two Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) coaches, Vinayak Kamat in South Goa and Roy Athaide in North Goa.
But with the retirement of Kamat in January this year, South Goa does not have any SAG coach.
Incidentally, Kamat used to train players at the Fatorda Multipurpose Hall, Margao. Besides Fatorda, the Manohar Parrikar Indoor Hall in Navelim is one of the badminton hub, which players from in and around Margao use on a regular basis.
No SAG coach has been appointed in place of Kamat nine months after his retirement.
The venue in Navelim was recently in the news when it was given on hire for a wedding, with veteran badminton players raising objections to the state government move to hand over the venue for non-sporting events.
Sources informed that there are many private badminton coaches in Goa, coaching at various venues but it was not known whether they have the right credentials and qualified to train young children in the basics of the game.
Another question raised is who certifies them in the state and who checks their coaching credentials.
Interestingly, both the SAG coaches are based in the cities of Margao and Mapusa and coach the city children leaving the children in the rural areas and semi-urban areas to fend for themselves.
“There are a lot of children playing and training on their own without any coaches to guide them or to train them, in different multipurpose halls all over Goa, but who cares for such talent, the government and the sports officials are only concerned about the city children,” added Denzil Dias, who has been regularly playing the game for the last few decades.
“Badminton is a good game to maintain your fitness and is good for all ages, and a right game for all the family members to be involved,” he added.
