We are making badminton more accessible to people, says Ian Wright
The development director with Badminton World Federation (BWF) Ian Wright, who is currently in India now, has mentioned that they are trying to make the sport more accessible to the people here than before. He also referred to the successful Indian shuttlers as 'positive role models' of the game.
Badminton, as a sport is, certainly spreading its wing all around the globe at a time when the Indian shuttlers are doing extremely well in all major competitions. The BWF has invested a lot at the grassroots level and the development director mentioned that they were trying to improve their presentation each and every time.
"We are improving our presentation all the time. Then at the grassroots level as well, we have invested a lot of the sponsorship money back into the game. School programmes are being implemented in 133 countries, we have 24 language version and we are making our sport more accessible to people," Wright told TOI.
The development director with the world body seemed satisfied with the Indian shuttlers shining at the world stage. Recently, PV Sindhu bagged a historic silver at the Asian Games in women's singles while Saina Nehwal finished third in the same event. Wright called the Indian players as role models that the next generation would look up to.
"It's amazing. You have positive role models at the top of the game. Good athletes and ambassadors for the sport. (PV) Sindhu, Saina (Nehwal) and (Kidambi) Srikanth obviously, but also some of the younger players in the doubles too, " said Wright.
Speaking about quality coaches in India and their education, Wright said, "The OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest) programme has been very good for them and I can see a lot of development over the 12 months. I believe they are starting the selection process in January for the next session and I'm hoping to be with them again next year."
"Over the last seven years we have built coach education programme which we have implemented globally. So, we now have the structure in place where we got different levels of coaching. We got over 90 countries with qualified BWF coaches. When we set out we designed the programme for developing (badminton) in the less developed nations. But we found that more developed badminton nations has come on board. That is a really good thing for BWF.
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