After exhibiting the art of her supple wrists, Ashwini Ponnappa disclosed about her preparations for the World Championships which is supposed to be held next month at Guangzhou in China.
Everything changes when Ashwini Ponnappa is in the ring. Her elegance at the badminton clinic in Jamnabai Narsee School, won the hearts of aspiring shuttlers on Monday.
Ponnappa showed the kids the correct way of holding a racket at the launch of ‘Shuttle Express’— the Indian Badminton League’s (IBL) School Programme initiative. Here she instructed them that one needs to shake hands with the racket.
She revealed that both Tarun Kona and Pradnya Gadre will be in Bangalore to train with Tom John. They will depart for the Pune tournament after that and subsequently return to Hyderabad. Actually, staying together while preparing for a world meet, makes the training easier. She added that India requires focusing more on doubles titles to motivate players and perform better in international tournaments.
Ponnappa rued that the doubles players are not mentioned at all which makes people conclude that they are not up to the mark. In addition, the Indian mentality lies in analyzing players alone on the basis of their performance in singles. In fact, they are not aware if their rankings improve.
Ponnappa admitted that cricket did a lot of good to other sports. Badminton is not an exception as it has united with the Indian Premier League (IPL) queue. She highlighted that in order to make a game popular, one needs to make it accessible and for that viewing is necessary as that will make one familiar with the names of the players.
Regarding IBL and popularizing badminton, she informed that a lot of companies are interested in employing badminton players. That should inspire a lot of youngsters as the financial security will be assured. In case the academies work in a combined manner to produce players for India providing them with the required facilities, there shall be no looking back.
The shuttler is highly enthusiastic for the tournament as the competition in the IBL will witness players from varied cultures belonging to the same country. Although it is not her issue to select the franchise, she disclosed that her heart will want Bangalore.
