Coach lambasts lack of vision for badminton

KARACHI: Coach Raziuddin Ahmed on Thursday stressed that Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) should make its affiliated units active if it wanted to revive the game in the country.
“The PBF should make its affiliated units active. If the PBF does not have money then its affiliated units should organise tournaments,” Razi told ‘The News’ in an interview from Islamabad on Thursday.
“All the affiliated units are bound to organise at least one national-level tournament in a calendar year according to the constitution of PBF. And they should be compelled to do so; this is the only way to revive badminton in the country,” Razi said.
“Since April 2011, no national championship has been organised,” he noted.
“Railways used to hold tournaments, but they have not been able to organise any event since 1980. WAPDA and Army, who are permanent voters, are yet to hold a national event which is sheer injustice with the sport,” said Razi, who also served Pakistan as coach in the 2010 Dhaka South Asian Games.
“Dearth of tournaments have left the players idle. It has killed their interest and they don’t know what to do,” he pointed out.
Razi said the PBF should stop sending players abroad on self-finance basis.
“In the past the PBF used to send players abroad on self-finance basis, which resulted in the human smuggling scandal. It was this scandal that forced the World Badminton Federation (WBF) to impose sanctions on Pakistan,” Razi recalled.
“Recently, a few junior players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa went to Bangkok on self-finance basis to play in a tournament there. Some other players went to Dubai and Bahrain to participate in tournaments there. But no trials were held for the purpose,” Razi disclosed.
“Some players get visas showing their plan to play tournaments but they give walk-over to rivals afterwards. Such activities damage the reputation of Pakistan,” he said.
He said Pakistan had touched the lowest ebb in badminton.
“Pakistan are ranked 100th in the world. Even this ranking has been achieved because the country fielded players in the last year’s Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games,” he said.
“In South Asia, we are below Sri Lanka (41), Nepal (64) and Bangladesh (72).
“India are smartly progressing in the game as they have three players in the world’s top rankings. It is not because India have hired the services of a Chinese coach but it because they are working under a specific system and are utilising their qualified coaches for polishing their stuff for national duty,” Razi observed.
“China are slowly losing their grip as Denmark, Spain and Thailand have improved a lot and are expected to give a tough time to the superpower of the game,” the coach said.
He said late Amir Hayat Khan Rokhri’s tenure as the PBF secretary was great for the game in the country.
“Amir gave a lot of boost to players. In his era, Wajid Ali reached 74th ranking in the world, while Pakistani pair of Rizwan Azam and Atiq were 60th in men’s doubles world rankings,” Razi added.
However, he lamented that Amir’s PBF made a blunder in its plan which prevented Pakistan from playing in the qualifying round for 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“Pakistani players had reached very close to playing in the Olympic qualifiers. But Amir’s PBF did not give further exposure to the players which denied them the chance to play in the Olympic qualifiers for the first time in the history of Pakistan,” said the badminton coach.
“Had they played in a few more tournaments their rankings would have improved and made them eligible to play in the qualifiers,” he explained.
“When the players told me the story during the camp for the 2010 South Asian Games I was shocked,” Razi said.
He said ranking tournaments should be immediately revived. “There should be fresh rankings of the players,” he said.
He said the PBF should establish a national academy and regional academies in provinces.
“These academies should be run by qualified coaches. The federation also should hold coaching courses for the former players and they should be given specific tasks,” Razi added.
He said there was a lot of talent in Pakistan. “Pakistan is brimming with talent. Last year in the Punjab Youth Festival I was stunned to see such fine talent in the players from even remote districts of Punjab.
“But the talent was wasted because there was no system in place which could polish the talent in a systematic way,” Razi said.