Badminton might be one of the top sports that India, as a country, is excelling at but it still remains far from a viable financial solution, especially for coaches and other support staff. One of the country’s top doubles coaches, Arun Vishnu, has decided to quit coaching over financial reasons. Arun, who has been coaching the senior women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, decided to bow out as he couldn’t help his family take care of the financial requirements with the money earned by badminton coaching.
“I wish they were World No.9 a few weeks ago,” Arun told Indian Express, in a mocking tone, as the women’s doubles pair of Jolly-Gopichand cracked the Top 10 this week. “But it’s a good feeling to have helped them, starting from scratch,” said Arun who has been silently working in the background of Indian badminton.
The decision to quit badminton coaching comes not out of will but compulsion as helping the family sustain itself, and meet financial needs, became No. 1 priority.
“I will miss coaching at the top level but then again, we have to take care of our families,”
The 36-year-old Arun, who hails from Calicut, hopes to use what he has learned in his Vidarbha academy, a new setup.
Further delving into his plans and the decision to quit top-level coaching, Arun revealed that travelling full-time wasn’t possible for him anymore, especially as he was about to become a father for the second time.
“Arundhati’s dad is ageing and was alone in Nagpur. Travelling full-time wasn’t possible. I had been thinking of moving since August. Indian coaches don’t get paid much, and my permitted leave for coaching at the national camp from the PSU was exhausted. I didn’t want to go to any other place (academy) other than Gopi sir, so I decided on starting an academy in Nagpur,” he explained.
“Vidarbha has a lot of talent, but there isn’t a structured academy here. I will encourage youngsters to play both singles and doubles till 17,” he added.,
Arun also highlighted the huge gulf between the salaries India coaches earn, in comparison to those brought in from abroad.
It has been reported that popular foreign names get paid $8000-10000, according to PTI, and Arun told the news agency that, “Indian coaches are not paid even one-fourth.”
“If we have to retain and nurture Indian coaches, they must be backed financially,” the outgoing coach set expectations clearly.
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