The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Vimal Kumar regrets scrapping of camps

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Friday, Feb 08, 2008
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Vimal Kumar regrets scrapping of camps

BANGALORE: The former National chief coach, U. Vimal Kumar, regretted BAI’s decision to scrap the badminton camps for Thomas Cup and Uber Cup teams at Panaji and for the juniors at Chandigarh.

In a chat with The Hindu here, Vimal said: “It is an administrative lapse more than anything else and it is not proper on our part to blame either the Ministry of Sports or the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Sports Authority of Goa. BAI should have planned the camps in advance and made adequate arrangements for the shuttles. “

A 10-day camp would have required about 150 to 200 boxes and they could have been stocked well in advance, knowing that there are going to be camps.”

While conceding the fact that the import of shuttles of late had been restricted due to the avian flu, Vimal added, “if getting Yonex shuttles was difficult, any good quality local shuttles could have been used for training purposes. If procuring them from outside was not possible, they could have tried buying it in the open market.”

The former National champion also pointed out that SAI’s role was basically to provide accommodation and training facilities at the respective centres and it was the federation’s duty to ensure that players got the shuttles.

“Most of the players had already assembled and they have to disperse now and nobody is going to reimburse the travelling expenses,” said the coach. — Special Correspondent

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