Newly elected president of the Badminton Association of India, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, outlined his vision for the already popular sport here on Friday, vowing to make India a true Super Power in the world of badminton by the next Olympic Games.
BAI President Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma felicitated ace Badminton player & Olympian Saina Nehwal with a cheque of twenty five lakh rupess at the BAI Conclave held today at New Delhi.
Dr Sarma, who was unanimously elected president two weeks ago after the demise of Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta, said that he has already started the ball rolling by setting up a task force for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Our first target is to corner a rich haul of medals in the next Olympic Games in line with Honbl.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of making the country an Olympic power,” he said at a press conference here on Friday. “We will do everything that is needed to help our supremely talented players and make them champions of the world,” he added.
The President, a sitting MLA from the Jalukbari constituency in Assam is also a cabinet minister handling portfolios of Finance, Health and Education in Assam, announced his plans after a daylong brain storming session with all the stakeholders in the sport, including coaches, players and top administrators.
“I have already had one on one sessions with General Secretary – Anup Narang , Coaches and most top players. We discussed at length about the steps that need to be taken to make India a Super Power in badminton. We are in the process of forming a high-powered committee and will share our plan very soon,” he explained.
Dr Sarma praised the efforts of all past Presidents including Dr Das Gupta in bringing the sport of badminton to the forefront of India’s consciousness, saying that his primary goal would be to carry forward the legacy that has been created by his predecessors.
“Our players have already brought immense laurels to the country. We are probably the most successful sports associations in India, having won two individual medals at the Olympics and innumerable title across the world,” he pointed out. “We, as a federation, want more though. We want to set yardsticks for all the other associations when it comes to sport,” he added.
Among other initiatives, the president said that the federation would strive to make badminton the most played sport in the country by setting up academies across the nation.
“We want to have state of the art academies in every zone of India so that young boys and girls take to the sport in a big way,” he said.
With this goal, Dr Sarma coined a new term to fulfil his dream:“ Let’s Take Badminton to the masses across India”.
The President stressed the importance of the Domestic Circuit because it is only a strong domestic circuit which can spring up many new players. He urged the top players to participate in the domestic circuit to create a positive impact in the minds of young players. He also urged all the Coaches to focus on finding new talents and domestic circuits.
“Badminton is one of the most convenient sports to indulge in and you play it anywhere, even outdoors,” he pointed out. “While we want to encourage every child to pick up a racquet and hit a shuttle every day, we also want to provide them the right technical support so that they take it up as a competitive sport,” he said.
For effective functioning, all BAI members as a team will be involved in the process of development of the game. “This will be done in a transparent way for best results,” he said.
Dr Sarma also awarded the Reward cheques amounting to 1.07 Crores rupees amongst the top 8 ranking players who brought laurels to the country.
Parupalli Kashyap was awarded the highest amount as he received a cheque of Rs. 30 Lakhs, followed by Saina Nehwal who received Rs. 25 Lakhs. P.V Sindhu got richer by Rs. 20 Lakhs, while women’s doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta received Rs. 10 Lakhs each. Kidambi Srikanth bagged Rs. 6 Lakhs and Guru Sai Dutt received Rs. 5 Lakh. P.C Thulasi also received an amount of Rs. 1 Lakh.