SAI accepts proposal to hire badminton coach Mohammed Siyadath Ullah under TOP scheme

Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma had sent a proposal to the SAI requesting the authorities to bring in Siyadath Ullah and physical trainer SR Ganesh ahead of the qualification matches for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics which will be held next year. Clearing the proposal, the SAI has now included Siyadath Ullah in the TOPS to help the men’s singles badminton players of the country.

Reacting to the recent development, Prannoy has said that Siyadah has been travelling with the shuttlers for most of the major events and is one of India’s main coaches.

"Siyadath has been one of the main coaches in our group for last couple of years and he has been the guy who has been travelling with us for most of the tournaments because Gopi Sir (Pullela Gopichand) cannot travel for lot of major tournaments," Prannoy told PTI.

"Park (Park Tae Sang) from Korea has also joined since February. Siyadath has been one of the main coach after Park and Gopi Sir, so it was really important for them to be in the TOP Scheme. We are going to travel a lot in this one year and being a Olympic qualification year, it is important that we have the funding to get the main coach along for each and every tournament.”

The 35-year-old Siyadath was appointed as the assistant coach of the Indian badminton team in 2010 and is a part of the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy (PGBA) in Hyderabad since 2004.