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The Chief National Coach for the Indian badminton team, Pullela Gopichand seems to have skirmishes and silent clashes with a couple of prominent Indian players. Earlier, we have reported about Saina Nehwal having differences with Gopichand and hence, she left his academy and went to join Prakash Padukone academy in Bangalore.
Now, Jwala Gutta spoke some shocking deets about her faded bonding with Gopichand. As we know, Gopichand and Jwala were a team in 2004 with the two winning prestigious National Badminton Championship title in mixed doubles. But, things were not good between them later as Jwala started training at the former All England champion. Jwala said that she holds Gopichand as responsible for a lot of opportunities she lost during her career.
“I hold Gopichand responsible for the harassment I had to go through all these years. I am vocal and I have had to pay a huge price for that,” Jwala told. “Gopi knows my potential and what I was capable of. He was part of the establishment and he knew my potential, so it was quite natural for me to have expectations from him. If you notice, there were players from other states when Gopi used to play. So there was a time where top players used to come from different parts of the country. But for the last 10-12 years, only players from Hyderabad or Telugu players are in prominence”.
“If India wins a medal, it is because of Gopichand and if we don’t do well, then it is the system that is to be blamed,” quoted Jwala. She was also soon to point out how foreign coaches don’t stay here long. “Why are foreign coaches not staying? There is internal politics and that is the reason why foreign coaches leave without completing their tenures. The reason is they don’t get the acknowledgement and feel disrespected, not just from the players but from the establishment, and I am an eyewitness to it.”
Well, in Saina Nehwal’s case, Gopichand had also faced the fiercely emotional nature of Nehwal when it comes to PV Sindhu getting all the attention. Nehwal questioned Gopi if he is giving Sindhu all the attention she deserves or only more inclined toward her. She had her own doubts and hence, left Gopichand’s academy for good. Now that Jwala came up with internal politics in his academy, it is definitely shocking for sport freaks to hear all the blames on the ace coach for our favourite players’ lost opportunities.
Tags Jwala Gutta Saina Nehwal
