Why are we minnows in the shuttle game
With badminton courts present in most parts of the country and the local population largely familiar with the sport, Sri Lanka should be keeping competitively abreast with its Asian neighbours, who rule the world stage. Disappointingly however, this is not the case, with Niluka Karunaratne’s display at the London Olympics still the only noteworthy performance internationally. This week the Sunday Times quizzed the public on why they thought this disturbing trend persisted.
 The main reason we are not doing well internationally is because we have no long-term plan. We have no national plan to develop our players. They are at the same level of top foreign players when they are young but then they are not given long-term training and don’t improve. We also need to have badminton academies. - Chinthaka Fernando (Badminton coach) |
 We have no good coaches and as a result we have not produced any really good players in our national pool. We also need to have more national tournaments organised at a higher level. - Deshapriya Munasinghe (Private sector employee) |
 The difference between our players and others from the region is that we do not provide them with proper training before a tournament. People are selected and sent for foreign competition without any training in Sri Lanka. It has become like a travel bureau, where money is collected and players are just sent abroad. Good people who can’t afford to pay don’t go. Players are just going and coming. We have talent here but we are not properly identifying it. - L. R. Ariyananda (Badminton coach) |
 One of our main problems in badminton is a lack of proper coaching. We need to get them trained. Also, the sport is mainly popular in Colombo. It needs to spread across the country with knowledgeable coaches teaching youngsters the game. - Mahesh Nanayakkara (Private sector employee) |
 To do well at the international level you need to find talented players and they have to be trained by the best coaches for a long time. You need to provide the right atmosphere; nutrition and training, there are a lot of things involved. If you look at countries like China and Japan they take about four to eight years to identify and groom their players. We take only three months. - Niluka Karunaratne (National badminton player) |
 Sri Lanka has to go for new technology because all the other countries that are doing well are using this kind of technology in their game. We also have to look at properly training our coaches. We have to send our coaches abroad or bring down top foreign coaches. - Parakrama Basanayake (Former SLBA President) |
 The reason we are unable to perform abroad even with so much interest in the sport here is because of a lack of technically competent coaches. You need to get really good coaches if you want to beat players from other strong countries. - Rakitha Dharmasena (Private sector employee) |
 Sri Lankan badminton is not successful internationally because it is not followed seriously here as a sport even though people play it. For it to grow funds need to come into it through sponsorships and other means. - Ruchira Ranawana (Media professional) |
 Our players need to give first priority to badminton from the time they are at the junior level but with the O’ Level and A’ Level exams they can’t do that. If you look at players from China, India and Malaysia they are playing six hours of badminton at a professional level. Sri Lankan players are focused only on playing the National and Junior National championships. Foreign competitions are just like tours for them. - Suraj Dandeniya (Sri Lanka Badminton Association President) |
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