Shuttlers heading in the right direction

Only the top 38 rankers in the world will make it to the Olympic Games to be held later this year in Beijing, China. But the catch is that only two players from each country can participate. Thus when all the deductions are made, Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne is well on course as he is currently ranked at number 34 (according to Beijing Olympic qualifying ranking) though his world ranking is number 76. Karunaratne just has to maintain his form as the rankings will be assessed on April 30 which is the cut off date. This was revealed by the President of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association (SLBA) Amanda Weerasinghe.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Weerasinghe said; “When I took over on March 31 last year development and popularising of the sport in the outstations had come to a stand still due to lack of funding. That was my first priority. I believe that some the best players are not based in Colombo. Getting sponsors was difficult and the money given by the government was not enough. Fortunately Sri Lanka Telecom came forward to sponsor our tournament. And I was able to convince Bank of Ceylon to give us a sizeable amount to restart our development work. Thus we were able to appoint coaches for the outstations. In addition we gave the shuttles and paid for the courts as well. Every rupee we get is used for the game and to be honest I have not even had a cup of water from the dispenser at the SLBA.”

He added: “We needed a full time coach and we appointed Pradeep Welagedara. We also realized that we also needed a foreign coach if we were to progress in the international arena. The former high performance coach of the World Badminton Federation (WBF) Mr. Kim came down last year. Then we had Sathish Yousuf who is a specialist doubles coach. He trained our players for some time. And in January this year we appointed Malaysian Shankar Anamalay on a one year contract. The results we have achieved speak for themselves. The two players we took for the Asian Junior girls under 16 championships, made it to the quarter finals for the first time in Sri Lanka’s history. And almost everybody was full of admiration for the two who played. In November last year we won three gold medals at a tournament held in Jordan. It is called the ‘Chinese Scoop’ because China generally wins all five gold medals. In addition the Mixed Doubles was an all Sri Lankan affair. Thus obviously we won a silver medal as well “

When asked about the popularity of the sport and where Sri Lankan teams are ranked, Weerasinghe said: “Badminton is certainly growing more and more popular. Even I was stunned as the junior Nationals last year had 6000 entries. I doubt that any other racquet sport can draw such large numbers. As for Sri Lanka, the men’s doubles team comprising of Dinuka and Dilusha Karunaratne are rankled at number 47. All our teams are ranked in the top 50 or 60 which is vast improvement considering the fact that these teams have moved up from well above 300.

Thus obviously we are headed in the right direction. In addition for the first time in Sri Lanka’s Badminton history Rohana De Silva has been appointed as a line judge for this year’s Olympics.”

In conclusion Weerasinghe said: “As is the case when the going is good there are always people trying to criticise us for all the wrong reasons. I would like to invite all these people to join hands with us to take the game forward. They can all see that the players practice for 6 to 7 hours a day at least six days of the week. I am especially thankful to the three banks that employ these players for giving them time off to practice. I believe that if more sponsors come forward, Sri Lanka can certainly put herself on the Asian map and given time the world map as well.”