The newly-elected president of Maharashtra
Badminton Association (MBA) Arun
Lakhani is determined to bring many positive changes
for the betterment of badminton in the state.
After being elected as the MBA president in Mumbai last week, Lakhani is slowly and steadily understanding the set-up to chalk out his plans for the future. The city businessman said it is an honour to lead the MBA and will strive hard to take the game to another level during his three-year tenure.
"The MBA has managed to spread the game to all corners of the state. Around 24 districts are active, which is a very positive sign for badminton. Still, we lack in providing facilities to the talented players. We don't have enough infrastructure to accommodate more players. My focus will be on to develop the facilities and infrastructure," said Lakhani while addressing meet-the-press programme, organized by the Sports Journalists' Association of Nagpur, here on Monday.
After being elected as the MBA president in Mumbai last week, Lakhani is slowly and steadily understanding the set-up to chalk out his plans for the future. The city businessman said it is an honour to lead the MBA and will strive hard to take the game to another level during his three-year tenure.
"The MBA has managed to spread the game to all corners of the state. Around 24 districts are active, which is a very positive sign for badminton. Still, we lack in providing facilities to the talented players. We don't have enough infrastructure to accommodate more players. My focus will be on to develop the facilities and infrastructure," said Lakhani while addressing meet-the-press programme, organized by the Sports Journalists' Association of Nagpur, here on Monday.
He was referring to the fact that,
several players of Maharashtra train outside the state because lack of top
class academy in the region.
"Although we are churning out quality players on regular basis, we failed to keep them in state. They move out to Hyderabad, Bangalore and other places as they have world-class academies. If we can provide them same facility here, there is no reason they migrate to other cities. We will make all-out efforts to start our own academy," said Lakhani.
"Although we are churning out quality players on regular basis, we failed to keep them in state. They move out to Hyderabad, Bangalore and other places as they have world-class academies. If we can provide them same facility here, there is no reason they migrate to other cities. We will make all-out efforts to start our own academy," said Lakhani.
The previous
president Pradeep Gandhe tried hard to acquire land from government but to no
avail. Lakhani said he will continue those efforts by using his good offices
with the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also from Nagpur.
"We
will again approach CM to get a substantial area for our dream project. We can
build an academy on the lines of Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, which
is a very successful model. We will also try to upgrade the existing indoor
halls. We will speak with the government authorities to use the 'dead' sports
complexes. MBA would like to operate and maintain the various divisional sports
structures," said Lakhani, whose younger son Sarang has been training at
Gopichand Academy since 2010.
He said the MBA would soon come with ten-point agenda for raising the standard of the game in the state. He said he is going to talk with the different district association officials to know their problems.
"In the next
three years, we would ideally like to change the scenario completely. We would
like to be bridge between players, parents and coaches. We want to be
self-sufficient. We have already started the talks with them. We want game
should spread in big way beyond the limited cities of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.
Badminton can become the second best sport after cricket," said Lakhani.
He said he will try his best so that Nagpur can host a national-level badminton tournament next season at the Mankapur-based Divisional Sports Complex.
