Vijayawada, Nov 15: Badminton at the grassroot level is looking up an observation made by senior National coach Mohammad Arif and seconded by doubles specialist Uday Pawar and coach Bhaskar Babu at the conclusion of the National mini and sub-juniors championships here recently.The championship brought to fore many talented youngsters. If these players are nurtured, India could well have a couple of quality shuttlers in its kitty in the junior category.Dhule-based Maharashtra's Nishad Dravid, Nagpur's Amit Mohite, diminutive Anand Pawar, Guwahati-based Anshuman Hazarika, Bora and Krishna Deka Raja, who incidentally won a double in the girls category, are some of the emerging forces.``Our shuttlers are no way inferior to any in the world as far as technique is concerned. But certainly we are no match to the Europeans, who play the power game to perfection. The other hurdle is fitness and stamina,'' observed Hyderabad-based Arif.Arif felt many young talented players are victims of socio andeconomic hurdles. ``Many players give up bright careers due to academic compulsions. For girls, there are so many taboos. In some cases, lack of infrastructure, quality equipment and coaching facilities obstruct the game from prospering. The shining example is Assam. Look at the potential in the junior categories. Five titles went their way in this tournament. But they would be found nowhere after a few years.''One encouraging sign in the country, especially after Prakash Padukone took up the reins of the game, is the blossoming of a good number of professionally-run academies. The BPL Academy at Bangalore, the Syed Modi year-round scheme at Thane, and Meenatai Thackeray Academy in Mumbai are fitting examples.Assam is a potential area of growth, which the badminton administration cannot afford to ignore. The proposed academy by Badminton Association of India (BAI) in Guwahati will certainly do a lot of good to the game in the North-East where natural talent is abundant.Uday Pawar, who dominatedthe game in the seventies and eighties, said the game under Padukone was poised for more growth. ``See the amount of exposure the present crop of youngsters are getting. Playing in different climatic conditions always brings out the best in you. Through these exposure and trips abroad many of our internationals have improved their rankings.''He said Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Chetan Anand, Nikhil Kanetkar, Sachin Ratti are the players for the future, but felt apprehensive about the growing vacuum on the distaff section.
