Local shuttlers ready without preparation?

With the aim of giving local shuttlers an international platform to be groomed in absence of international engagements, the Bangladesh International Badminton Challenge was introduced in 2011. Since then the tournament has been held regularly except for in 2017.

Now the seventh edition, sponsored by Yonex-Sunrise, is set to get underway today at the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium in Paltan, but the local shuttlers are not expected to benefit from the tournament as there has been no proper planning from the Bangladesh Badminton Federation (BBF) in the last seven years.

During the inaugural edition in 2011, Bangladesh won a silver medal in women's doubles event where four Bangladeshi teams and one Sri Lankan team participated while the women and men shuttlers reached the pre-quarterfinals in singles events. Despite having an opportunity for the local shuttlers to improve in familiar environment, the BBF has virtually not taken any initiative focusing on this tournament.

This time around, the BFF started training for the shuttlers on November 16 with a Malaysian coach joining the camp on November 24 and the hosts hardly have any hope of producing good results in the 14-nation tournament where some players ranked between 49 and 85 in the world will compete in men's and women's singles.  

“To be honest, I do not have the ability to compete against those foreign players at the moment,” national champion Salman Khan told The Daily Star yesterday.

“These foreign players also did not have the ability to compete at this level, but they have come to this stage by playing a lot of international tournaments. If we get an opportunity to play international tournaments regularly, it is possible for us to improve,” Salman said, adding that he last participated in the South Asian Badminton Championship in Nepal this month but the gap with his previous international tournament was one year.

Replying to a query, the 23-year-old lad from Sylhet said, “I have the ability to get improved training aboard with my own money, but why I will go abroad to get training? I am already a national champion, so I do not need to improve to defend the title.”

Former national champion Enayet Ullah Khan blamed the federation for not having a proper plan to improve the shuttlers. 

“There is no proper nursing at the federation because the new coach has come only a few days ago. He is working on fitness and skill of the players even though he is supposed to work only on technical aspects. However, he is helpless because the local shuttlers are unfit due to the lack of round-the-year training,” said Khan. 

Admitting the lack of initiatives, BBF general secretary Amir Hossain Bahar said, “It is true that we could not hold the Bangladesh International Challenge with proper plan due to financial limitation, but we will try to run a long-term training camp ahead of the next tournaments in future.”