Nagpur gets Gopichand-style academy from two illustrious students: Arundhati-Arun
2
3
4
Nagpur: Come Sunday and Nagpur will inaugurate its first professional badminton training facility, following the model of India's most successful Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.
The state-of-the-art centre will cater to players across all skill levels.
The Arundhati Arun Badminton Academy (AABA) will commence operations at Besa, utilising the facilities of Nirmal Sports Academy, a venture of the Nayse family. The academy will provide training to beginners, amateurs and elite professionals under experienced coaches.
In a major first for Central India, the AABA is a premier professional badminton academy founded by former Indian badminton stars SR Arun Vishnu and Nagpur's very own Arundhati Pantawane.
This makes Arun and Arundhati the first Indian badminton couple to set up a professional academy in the region.
Addressing media persons on Thursday, the former National Games champion and world No. 49 Arundhati said, "The AABA is founded with a vision of strengthening India through badminton. With a mission to train athletes from grassroots to elite international levels, AABA offers world-class coaching, advanced facilities, and comprehensive training programmes."
Arun Vishnu, a five-time national mixed doubles champion and former world No.37, expressed enthusiasm about training regional talent. "We have shifted from Hyderabad to Nagpur to start our own set up. Our aim is to train the promising players from the region and give them a perfect platform to launch their career. I am sure in the years to come, you can see players from our academy shining at the national and international level," said Arun, who had served as Indian team doubles coach.
Both Arundhati and Arun gave the credit to Gopichand. Arundhati said, "We are what, we are today, is only because of Gopi sir. We thank him for the efforts he put in us and for making us successful. Its time to pass on the baton to the next generation."
Nirmal Sports Academy's Sachin Nayse said they signed a five-year deal with AABA for the benefit of local players. "We constructed a huge badminton hall keeping in mind the talented players of the region.
Earlier, top local players used to shift to major academies in Hyderabad or Bengaluru. But now they will get all the best facilities here. Both Arundhati and Arun are not only top badminton players of their playing days but have now also established themselves as leading coaches," said Nayse.
The facility features five hova badminton flooring on wooden surface, gymnasium, changing rooms, Yonex store, and spectator gallery for 600 people, suitable for national coaching camps and tournaments. The coaching team includes Rutvik Kiran, Tanmay Gawande, Atul Tamrakar, Akshaya Warang and Sanskriti Chabra. Ramesh Nayse and Sushant Nayse of Nirmal Sports Academy attended the announcement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
United News of India
2 hours ago
- United News of India
Joe Root's masterclass put England in command
Manchester, July 25 (UNI) Joe Root led England's charge with a majestic 150 as the hosts closed Day 3 at a dominant 544 for 7 in 135 overs, taking a commanding 186-run lead over India's first-innings 358 in the ongoing Test at Old Trafford today. Resuming the day at 225 for 2, Root and Ollie Pope (71) steadily built England's innings, frustrating the Indian bowlers with measured resistance. The duo's 113-run partnership set the tone, as Root calmly moved to his 38th Test century with a gentle glance to the fine leg boundary off debutant Anshul Kamboj. It was a knock that combined patience and panache, highlighted by reverse sweeps, late cuts, and elegant drives. Root brought up his 150 in 248 deliveries (14x4), drawing a loud cheer from the spectators. But his splendid innings ended at 150 when Ravindra Jadeja produced a sharply turning delivery that beat the bat and saw him stumped by substitute keeper Dhruv Jurel. Captain Ben Stokes was equally impactful. After his five-wicket haul earlier in the match, he brought up his 36th Test 50, showcasing his all-round dominance. Stokes muscled boundaries through pulls and reverse sweeps and took charge against both pace and spin. He eventually retired hurt on 66 at 491/4 but returned later in the day and remained unbeaten on 77 by stumps. Jamie Smith's brief cameo of 9 ended when Jasprit Bumrah finally found reward for his effort, getting Smith caught behind off a delivery that straightened and induced an edge. Jurel, again impressive behind the stumps, took a sharp low catch diving forward. Liam Dawson added late momentum with aggressive stroke play, including a pair of well-timed boundaries, one via a pull off Bumrah and another thumped straight down the ground off Washington Sundar. However, wickets began to fall as India finally saw some return for their toil. Chris Woakes became Siraj's first scalp of the innings when a low ball sneaked under the bat to hit the stumps, a just reward for the pacer who had bowled without luck all day. Earlier, India had lost a review against Root in the morning and missed a runout opportunity, which proved costly as Root built his imposing innings. England's innings was peppered with quality strokes and decisive running between the wickets. Despite occasional breakthroughs, India's bowlers lacked sustained pressure, and their inconsistent lengths allowed England batsmen to settle in. The second new ball taken at 90.3 overs did little to trouble Root and Stokes during their partnership. With England sitting comfortably at 544 for 7 and still having batting left, India faces an uphill task heading into Day 4. England: 544/7 in 135.0 overs (Joe Root 150, Ben Stokes 77*, Ollie Pope 71; Sundar 2/57 Jadeja 2/117); India 1st Innings: 358 UNI BDN SS
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
No help from other end for Jasprit Bumrah… they are little bit greedy: Morne Morkel
The one big reason for India trailing in the fourth Test at Old Trafford is Jasprit Bumrah's failure to take wickets with the new ball, a trend that started in the last Test he played at Birmingham. The blazing start of English openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley — scoring 166 runs in 32 overs — pushed England ahead in this decisive Test. According to the Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel, it is the lack of support from the other end that is making it difficult for the team's pace spearhead to get the better of England's top order batsmen. 'For him to be successful, we need to build partnerships. The other guys need to help him out and I think at times, the guys are also trying from the other end, they are a little bit greedy — trying to strive too much and that's how we leak and sort of release that pressure. You can't say anything about Bumrah, he's number one in the world, he's skillful. At times you need help from the other end,' Morkel said. When talking about Day 2 when the game truly slipped out of India's hands because of the worst-bowling day of the tour, Morkel again spoke about leaking runs and bowlers being greedy. He was answering a question about debutant Anshul Kamboj being preferred over Mohammed Siraj with the new ball. 'See if we attack first with Bumrah ad and Siraj up front, then we have to go to less experienced guys at first change. So that is a bit of a tricky one, but looking back at yesterday, you back a guy that's picked on his strength — which being Anshul bowls with the new ball with the best bowler in the world. Siraj has been doing a fantastic job bowling first change. Yesterday our execution let us down, so I think it's not so much to blame on the combinations we went with, it's more the fact that we let ourselves down with our execution. I haven't seen a pitch map where we basically leaked runs, I think 100 runs on both sides, normally like a bit of a split. For me yesterday was either a sign that we were too greedy but we couldn't stick to the plan and then from there we found ourselves chasing the game a little bit.' On the question of Bumrah's workload he said, 'You know, he's the strike bowler, there will be moments that you need to push a guy a little bit harder and longer to get the breakthrough. England has a powerful batting line-up. As a batter, your initial first 20 balls are very crucial and in terms of a guy who can ask questions, he is Bumrah. He is going to be asked a lot of times to come in and do the job for us.'
New Indian Express
3 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Bowling over and under: A big concern for Gill and Co
MANCHESTER: Since Gautam Gambhir took over as head coach, one of the most identifiable trends with this Indian team is the preference for all-rounders over specialist bowlers in their bid to strengthen the bowling depth. They chose to go with Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja at Leeds before replacing the former with Nitish Kumar Reddy and bringing in Washington Sundar in place of specialist batter, B Sai Sudharsan, in Edgbaston. The trio was then retained at Lord's match but injury to Reddy meant Thakur made it to the playing XI for the ongoing fourth Test here at the Old Trafford Ground. With their batting ability seems to be the deciding factor, most of these all-rounders seemingly remained underutilised with the ball. The latest on the list is left-hand batter and off-spinner Washington. After not bowling a single over on Day Two, he was handed the ball six overs before the lunch (69th over) on Friday. He sent in three overs before lunch without making much difference but shortly after the break, Washington made the ball to drift away from Ollie Pope to induce an outside edge. He followed it up with another, deceiving Harry Brook — the breakthroughs India were looking for all day. Into his third match of the series, Washington has always been the last to be introduced by skipper Shubman Gill. He started by bowling 14 overs in the first innings in Birmingham, one more than pacer Prasidh Krishna, giving away 73 runs without any success. The ordinary outing and being last to start bowling meant he got only six overs in the next innings. He scalped the wicket of England skipper Ben Stokes.
