Flight of fancy: Shuttle dips after high toss

Besides, there was Abhinn Shyam Gupta who won the French Open title and on four occasions reached the round of 32. Another talented player on the circuit, Chetan Anand reached the semifinals of the highly competitive Dutch Open and reached the last-16 stage of the French Open.

However, plans can go drastically sour if not implemented fully as badminton fans are realising it today. The upward swing suddenly is showing a decline.

The top players were not able to make the crucial transition this year. Though Kanetkar’s individual ranking reached a personal best of 41 in the IBF rankings he failed to reach the elite stage of any major tournament. The Pune-based shuttler fell short of big match temperament at the Singapore Open, where he bowed out in the last-16 stage.

Likewise, Abhinn had a good run in the Holland Open beating Hock Kin Yong (Malaysia) and Nabil Lasmari but he lost in the quarterfinals. Title victories were never on cards for the Indian shuttlers with the best performance being that of former junior national champion Thomas Kurien, who finished runners-up in the Scottish Open. To make matters worse, Gopi got injured in mid-season and he too disappointed at the Busan Asian Games.

The poor performance is being attributed to the fact that players are not showing enough commitment at the top level. Former National champion and now a selector Vimal Kumar blames the players for taking things for granted. While he holds the opinion that the current players are talented and can do well ‘‘but they lack commitment.’’ Vimal was recently appointed by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) to work in conjunction with chief coach SM Arif. He strongly feels that the exposure tours for the top players need to be planned properly. ‘‘There is no point sending a contingent for graded tournaments when the fact remains that they would not make headway owing to the lack of experience,’’ said the former star.

Vimal feels that the players should be segregated into different categories and likewise tournaments should be allotted. Players below the top-100 mark should be sent for Satellite-level tournaments in Asia or Europe in order to build their confidence levels, before graduating to the star events. ‘‘Two years in each level would definitely build confidence in players,’’ Vimal suggests.

But Gopi feels that to implement such a plan, BAI needs a strong junior programme. ‘‘Where is the junior programme.’’ he says. The former All England champ points out that though he along with Gupta, Kanetkar, Anand and have been playing top level tournaments for the last four years but barring Arvind Bhat and Thomas Kurien there have been no juniors to take over.

Gopi also stresses on hiring a foreign coach. He said, ‘‘We are imbibed with a culture that does not permit us to take adverse steps. They (foreign coaches) are better off in these aspects.’’

Vimal feels that systematic assessment should be followed, otherwise all efforts would be futile. The players and the coaches should be accountable for the performance. ‘‘Systematic assessment is the need of the hour,’’ he said.

Overall, experts and players are in agreement that the game needs to be promoted vigorously and good planning would be the key. Gopi feels that administrators need to look into the real issues and come up with quick solutions. Vimal feels that BAI needs to focus on developing the men’s singles event. ‘‘We need to concentrate on men’s singles. There is absolutely no point rushing the women’s singles/ doubles or men’s doubles teams for top tournaments,’’ he said. In short, building brick by brick.

Somewhere down its flight, the game of shuttle has failed to make the crucial transition in the country despite two All England titles in the past two decades. Instead, the game is floating waywardly.