The Premier Badminton League 2016 is almost upon us and one of the participating teams in the competition the Bengaluru Top Guns was launched in the city on Tuesday. Present at the event were the star players for the franchise- the captain and premier Singles player Kidambi Srikanth and doubles specialist Ashwini Ponnappa.
Also, present at the event were the head coach of the team Arvind Bhat, chief coach of the Indian team Pullela Gopichand, Mr.D.V Srinivas the President of the Karnataka Badminton Association and Prasad Mangipudi, the Team Principal for the team.
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The two players spoke to Sportskeeda on various topics from the tournament itself to the emergence of junior players.
Ashwini Ponnappa
On playing for the Top Guns: I am super excited and really happy to be playing my matches here. One of the most exciting things was to find out that I was going to play for the Bengaluru Top Guns and the fact that I am Bengaluru girl and playing for the Bengaluru team is really exciting.
I am really happy that I am finally going to get to play my matches here because normally all our matches are centered towards either Hyderabad, Lucknow or Delhi. We don't have any international tournaments held in Bengaluru. I think this city will have a lot of upcoming badminton players, we have a lot of badminton enthusiasts and to be able to play in front of all of them is really wonderful and I am looking forward to it.
On whether kids of today are getting more exposure at a much younger age to the sport: Absolutely. I think the sport on the all has grown quite a bit. Players at a really young age are getting a lot of funding, they are getting to a lot of tournaments to go and play. When we were Under-13 or Under-15, we couldn't aspire to get on to the Under-16 team. There wasn't any Under-16 team at all in the circuit.
We started off with the Under-19 team and then we would look to elevate and be a part of the A, B or the C team and then the World Championship team. They were only these two sides then. Now we have an Under-15 category, Under-17 category and Under-19 category. All these kids have so much exposure and hence you see then performing at a really young age.
They are also doing very well. We have a lot of our players doing well in the international circuit, the juniors entering the finals, the semifinals which wasnt the case earlier. We would perhaps get one tournament as compared to the others getting 7 or 8. Hence you see the difference and by the time you actually go there and see how good the other players are the tournament is already over. You dont get to know the areas where you need to improve and by the time you get back and work on those areas, the juniors are over and you have to start the grind all over in the seniors.
Kidambi Srikanth
Currentlly ranked number 9 in the world, the Guntur-born player said that he was excited to play for the Bengaluru Top Guns in the Premier Badminton League. He also spoke about the role played by Pullela Gopichand in his career and the recent silver medal won by Siril Varma in the Junior Championships.
On Pullela Gopichand being India’s best coach: I just said that he was the best coach that I have seen so far. I dont want to comment on any other coaches. I should give him the total credit of mine for my wins so far. i dont think I could have so many titles without him.
On Siril Varma’s exploits at the Junior World Championships: He has been playing really well. He is there at the Gopichand academy. We see him everyday. Its nice that he gets to play with all the senior players. Its a good thing for any junior player to get to play with India’s top players. He is playing well and he’ll definitely be there in the senior circuit one day.
