TN to soon have two badminton academies

Mon, Nov 01 10 08:08 PM

Chennai, Nov 1 (PTI) Tamil Nadu would soon have two badminton academies as part of a national endeavour to set up coaching institutions to promote the game, leveraging on the excellent results in the just concluded Commonwealth Games. Announcing this at a function to felicitate state players for finishing runner-up in the South Zonal championship, State President Hemant Kumar Sinha said Badminton Association of India is close to signing a mega deal with a sponsor with the overriding condition that the funds be used to beef up the physical infrastructure for the sport through academies. "The BAI has found a good sponsor who is prepared to join the association in the long run but their first condition is that academies should be set up," Sinha said. Sinha said that under the new deal with BAI, the association would set up 30 academies all over India with Tamil Nadu hosting two. "The first academy will be set up in Chennai then we will find another venue to set up the second one. Once we have an academy in place, I am sure we are not only going to win the South Zone, but will also produce international players," he said. He said it was after two decades that Tamil Nadu had reached the final of the South Zone inter-state "without any academy, professional training, without equipment to players and backing.'' The academy would house six to eight courts and provide trainees good quality shuttlecocks. It would also avail services of excellent coaches and other infrastructure, as in Gopichand''s academy, he said.

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