Pratiksha gets invite for Padukone's camp

ahmedabad: "i would like pratiksha to join the badminton camp and get training with some of the best young players in india," says former world number one player and all-england champion, prakash padukone, in a letter to gnfc's sports complex in-charge and senior administrator, r tiruvengadam. the news surprised and left the latter overjoyed, as tiru had begun to feel that pratiksha might not be able to get the opportunity to train at the prestigious bpl-sponsored prakash padukone badminton academy (ppba) at bangalore.it was an occasion for the gnfc, bharuch management, particularly its sports development council, to feel happy and honoured that one of their young badminton players had found a place among the elite talent in the country at the ppba. on her part, 15-year-old pratiksha will be carrying not only her hopes and dreams, but also gnfc's and the entire badminton fraternity's expectations on her shoulders when she attends the camp that begins from may 15 and ends around june 30. incidentally, after the camp, the whole batch will be taken to chennai to participate in the krishna khaitan memorial major ranking badminton tournament for juniors. right now, gujarat number one and national number seven, anuj gupta, who works at the gnfc office in bangalore, is the only player from the state who has made it to the academy. anuj, whose career was poised to take-off this season with his entries in the all-england, french and a few european tournaments being scheduled, unfortunately injured himself and had to miss out all the action. coming back to pratiksha, her case was taken up by former india captain and arjuna awardee, partho ganguly last september. partho, a member of bai's national selection committee and dgm in gsfc, vadodara, was assured by prakash padukone, his former team-mate, that he would try his best to accommodate pratiksha, depending on the number of vacancies available. from the group of promising gnfc girls who have been nurtured in the game by tiru over the years, pratiksha, the daughter of gnfc manager, sahdevsinh p gohil, seems to be the only one who is willing to carry the baton forward. players like tejal and vrunda desai have faded out like the rest, having opted to give academics sole priority. tiru, who used to carry pratiksha in his arms, as a baby and has been tutoring her for a long times, feels pratisha's win in 1998 in the under-19 section over second seeded ashwini joshi was one of her best victories. the gujarat number one among under-13 girls in 1996 and '97, pratiksha is also the youngest player to have won the under-19 title in the state. pratiksha on her part, is thankful to all those who have made it possible for her to come so far. she says she is grateful to gnfc managing director, anand m bhardwaj who is promoting sports activities and sportspersons dedication and zeal, chief vigilance commissioner of india, n vittal who when he was md of gnfc and conceptualised its superb sports complex. after her ssc exams, pratiksha is currently being trained in ahmedabad under well-known sai badminton coach ashok mehta, who from time to time has been providing the necessary technical guidance at the camps, held in bharuch, along with sag coach hs rawat.