National coach Pullela Gopichand thinks the biggest challenge for Indian badminton will be to bring the next level of players back to the stage. The pandemic has created havoc with schedules of most of the games at the junior level and badminton is no different.

“The top players are still okay. I am talking about the next generation... That level was badly affected by the pandemic since 2020 March.

“So here we have good players with no ranking, players at the junior level who haven’t been able to play in tournaments... We need to kind of bring them back to the stage. That will be the real challenge,” Gopi told The Telegraph during a brief interaction on Saturday.

Gopi said the younger players have a lot of talent but things need to get streamlined to transform them into world-beaters.

“There are a lot of promising shuttlers in India. But we need to streamline things so that they can become world-beaters... Among women players also many show a lot of promise and I think we need to structure everything well to ensure that we get consistent results. With streamlining and proper structuring I mean we need to get the tournament calendar organised in a proper manner... The coaches, the support staff...

“These are the things we are working at with the Badminton Association of India and Sports Authority of India. Hopefully in the coming months things will get sorted out.”

This year will be non-stop action for the top Indian shuttlers. The All England Open Badminton Championships, which Gopi had won in 2001, is scheduled to begin on March 16. In the latter part of the year there two important events lined up, the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. “Yes for the top players this year is critical. Hoping that we start on a good note.”

Gopi did not travel with the team during the Tokyo Olympic Games but said he would be there in the corner this year. “Yes I would be with the squad.”

According to him, Olympic sport in India has improved by leaps and bounds. “Neeraj’s (Chopra) gold-medal winning feat is a game changer according to me. Also (PV) Sindhu’s second Olympic medal. The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games success has put Olympic sport on a pedestal. Also the IOC session would be held in Mumbai in 2023. Olympic sport in India is surely on an ascending curve.”

Gopi feels a lot has changed in terms of focus from the days when he used to play and now. “I think the Indian government now is more proactive. Olympic sport is on the top-priority list so everyone down the line thinks that it is important and that makes the difference.”

Gopi was in town to unveil his book, Shuttler’s Flick, written in collaboration with Priya Kumar. The event was organised by the Bengal Rowing Club in association with The Telegraph.

“After the Rio Olympics, my good friend Sashidhar kept on pestering me to pen down my life in a book. I kind of passed it off. He was still after me and said there is a writer called Priya who had written a book on his father. So I met her and found she has some amazing ways of telling a story.

“I kind of reluctantly shared my story but credit to her perseverance there is this book. It’s very differently written and I think everyone would like it.

“The Hyderabad launch was in October. I was supposed to come to Calcutta in January during the Lit Fest. But that got postponed due to the third wave of Covid-19.

“Anyway, here we are speaking about Shuttler’s Flick. If normality remains, I might be back in March for another session,” Gopi, who was in the city after more than two years, signed off.