Pak badminton players refuse to be trained by ‘mediocre coaches’

KARACHI: Pakistan’s badminton has been hit hard by a war among officials and national shuttlers are not happy being trained by mediocre coaches.

Insiders told ‘The News’ on Tuesday that national shuttlers last month refused to be trained by coaches whose credentials were not enough to train the country’s leading players for international assignments.

The sources said that the Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) wanted to run a camp last month in Islamabad to prepare players for the Yonex Sunrise Pak Series International Badminton Tournament slated to be held at the Liaquat Gymnasium, Islamabad, from November 9-12 but the players did not come to the camp and the federation had to stop it.

Liaquat Ali of Lahore and Nadeem Khan of Peshawar had been assigned the task to prepare the players for the Badminton World Federation (BWF)-sanctioned event in Islamabad in which shuttlers from 14 nations besides hosts Pakistan would be showing their worth.

A top national player told ‘The News’ on Tuesday that training under the coaches who were assigned the task was useless.“We are already getting training from our own coaches who are better than those who were to train us in the camp. Why should we go to the national camp? There is no need for a national camp if we are to be trained by coaches with no solid credentials,” the player said.

Another player said all leading players wanted to be trained by foreign coaches. He added the country would not be able to progress until the players were imparted quality training. However, a senior official of the PBF denied that the players had refused to join the camp. “It has never been the case. The players never refused to join the camp,” PBF secretary Wajid Ali told ‘The News’ when asked by this correspondent.

“Actually we had held the camp for three to four days and then stopped it because very few players had joined that. Some players were taking examinations and there were some other reasons which compelled us to stop it,” said Wajid, a former international.

However, he was quick to add that the PBF would start the camp on November 6 under a foreign coach. “Badminton Asia has given us a Malaysian coach, Mr Lee, who will arrive in Pakistan on November 6 for six months,” Wajid said.

About coach Liaquat, he said it was the same coach who had trained him for eight years. He claimed he was a good coach and was capable to train national players.However, he said the players were not serious. “Except the players of WAPDA all are doing jobs in different schools,” Wajid said.

When asked who would resolve the players’ issues, Wajid angrily replied there was nothing in the national sports policy which could help develop sports. “We are playing our role. We are going to organise an international event for the second time in a row. Last year we had held this event which was after ten years that Pakistan hosted such an event,” the official said.

International coach Raziuddin Ahmed said that the PBF should stop destroying the game. “The differences have ended and now PBF should take along all the stakeholders for the betterment of badminton. Pakistan’s badminton revolves around three persons,” Razi told ‘The News’ on Tuesday.

He said that coaches Liaquat and Nadeem did not deserve to train national players.“They are not qualified. In 2008 I had conducted a coaching course which was attended by 35 coaches. Liaquat, who is a retired coach of Sports Board Punjab (SBP), told me that he could not write. I had not issued him a proper certificate but had given him a document which mentioned that he attended that course,” Razi said.

“Nadeem has done level-I basic course which is not enough for the duty given to him,” he said. Razi, who is a level-II coach, said if he was assigned the coaching job and provided infrastructure he could develop players who could beat the leading Indian shuttlers.