‘I love cricket’

Says badminton champ Aparna Popat, breaking away from the stereotype that non-cricketing sports persons don’t like the game. She has now changed gear and is coaching state level players
Before Saina Nehwal stormed into the badminton scene, it was Aparna Popat who was making more headlines than anybody else in the sport. After hogging the limelight for more than a decade in badminton as a player, Aparna is now looking to take up a new role - that of a coach.We caught up with the shuttler in recently even as she was coaching state-level players in Lucknow.
“It’s a sort of an experiment for me,” she smiles, “I don’t know whether I’ll be able to do justice to it (coaching) or not. See not every good player can be a good coach and vice-versa. But yes, I’ll give a thought about taking up coaching as a full time job but I’m always open to giving tips to the young players.” Interestingly, the City of Nawabs is quite special for this petite shuttler. “I have very fond memories of this city. Every time I have played here in the Syed Modi badminton tournament, I have emerged as a winner. I have won all the tournaments here from 1998 to 2004 back to back,” shares Aparna.
Aparna is the only Indian woman badminton player who has represented India at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000 and the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Olympian feels the badminton scene in the country is becoming better now. “Just when I gave up the game, there’s a revolutionary change in badminton. To break in the top 20 was a big thing for us. But now shuttlers like Saina are breaking in to the world top 10 rankings, competing with the best in the business,” she says.
Aparna, who has defeated the new reigning badminton queen of the country Saina Nehwal previously says that Saina has done the country proud with her achievements. “You know what sets Saina apart from any other shuttler is that she has the right attitude and she’s very disciplined. The kind of efforts she has put in all these years is just phenomenal,” says Aparna.
Ask her about the qualities that Indian shuttlers have today and she says, “Indian shuttlers are very skillful. The only area where the Chinese score over them is the fitness. In terms of skill, we are the best. If we want to be on the top, we will have to do something extra. Also we should start spotting talent from the sub-junior level so that those kids will have ample time to hone their skills,” she states.
However, for this achiever, badminton wasn’t her first love. “I had a passion for lawn tennis, but somehow I got into badminton. I still watch tennis whenever I get the time. In fact I love watching cricket as well. Lot of non-cricketing sports persons don’t like cricket just because it gets more attention than any other game in the country. But I love watching the sport,” smiles Aparna.
The somewhat shy girl hasn’t still found her Mr Right yet. “See, there’s nobody in my life as yet. Abhi ke liye I have no plans, no expectations also as to how my life partner should be. But I guess he should be somebody beyond the badminton court,” she smiles as she signs off.
jaipur.times@indiatimes.com
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