Prakash Padukone backs Kidambi Srikanth's decision

Mumbai: Former Badminton legend Prakash Padukone supports Kidambi Srikanth’s decision of pulling out from the China Open followed by Hong Kong Open Super Series to recover fully from injury. Srikanth was troubled by a leg muscle injury while he was playing Senior National Championship in Nagpur earlier this month.

Srikanth decided to rest himself for the China open that was scheduled right after the national championship and further decided to skip tournament held in Hong Kong. He has a dropped one position to third after achieving career best ranking of World No 2 following his French Open Superseries win.

“I think Srikanth has taken the right decision by skipping (tournaments in) China and Hong Kong. He could have reached the number one rank but he will have the same in Dubai as well. My advice is to skip a few tournaments and prepare for the big ones even if the rankings go down for a week or two,” he said at the launch of TATA Open International Challenge which starts here on Wednesday.

Whenever there is a talk about Indian badminton coaches, the nation turns to either Pullela Gopichand or Padukone himself. There is a dearth of skilled coaches in the country compared to the growth of the sport among the masses. The former World number one feels it is the most important issue that needs to be taken care of. “There is only one course for Indian coaches and I urge BAI to take it up. I think foreign coaches should be brought here just to train our coaches,” said Padukone.

“This should be our number one priority. More and more players are coming up and there needs to be coaching of good quality,” he further added.

The Tata Open will feature players like Chirag Shetty, Jakka-mpudi Meghana, Poorvisha S. Ram, Satwiiksairaj Rankireddy. They will lock horns with participants from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Nee Zealand, Thailand and United States of America on the courts of the Cricket Club of India.