We’ll never get best foreign coaches, need to groom Indian ones to replace them: Pullela Gopichand

Pullela Gopichand says a good mix of foreign and Indian coaches is important for the development of the system but strongly believes that “second best” overseas recruits will only produce the second-best players.

Speaking at the virtual inauguration of the High-Performance Coach Education Programme, the national badminton coach highlighted the role of coaches in Indian sports.

“Foreign coaches are very important for our development. It’s very important that we always have a healthy mix of foreign coaches.

“In sports, where we do not have the expertise it is good sometimes to have full foreign support teams in the beginning, but if for successive teams, we are having only foreign coaches then we are not doing justice to our system.

“It’s very important that we learn from them. And we’ve to gradually wean away from them because they will always be making us the second best and not the best,” Gopichand added.

The Dronacharya Award winner feels there is a need for programs that turn former players into coaches.

“We’ll never be able to get the best foreign coaches, we will always get only the second best, and probably the heart of an Indian coach who’s really wanting India to win will be definitely more than the coach who wants the next contract.

“So, sports…

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