The Badminton Association of India has chosen Prakash Padukone for its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Every year, the BAI will honour a person who has contributed immensely to the sport. And at our core committee meeting today, we have chosen Prakash Padukone for our first-ever lifetime achievement award,” the BAI president Himanta Biswa Sarma said here on Monday.
The award will carry ₹10 lakh and the function will be held in Delhi soon.
BAI centres in five zones
The BAI has also decided to start its own national badminton centres in the five zones around the country and give a big fillip to the sport.
“We don’t have a national or regional coaching centre of our own. We are doing it in somebody’s infrastructure. So now, we have decided to set up five national badminton centres, in North, South, East, West and one in NorthEast,” said Biswa Sarma.
The BAI will try to acquire eight acres of land in these areas start a modern training centre.
“Today, we have Saina and Sindhu, we need to have more such talented players coming up from different parts of the country. For that, we need to have a lot of feeder centres,” said the BAI chief.
But Kochi’s Regional Sports Centre, despite its 23 badminton courts, will not be considered for such a national centre.
“The RSC handles 27 disciplines and it has to do justice to all of them… one sport cannot monopolise here,” explained Biswa Sarma.
Instead, the BAI plans to allot one of its four junior camps, which could be held during the summer vacation, to Kochi.
