8 October 2026: Former badminton champion Prakash Padukone believes India’s future sporting champions will increasingly come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, as long as young athletes there have access to proper infrastructure, equipment and coaching.
Padukone was speaking after the Padukone School of Badminton (PSB) signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Institute of Sports & Management (IISM). He talked about how quickly badminton is growing across the country and said grassroots development and coaching standards now need urgent attention.
Three things every sport needs
For Padukone, the talent in smaller towns was never the problem.
“Earlier, the talent was always there in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. But there was no infrastructure, there was no coaching, there was no equipment. You only need these three things in any sport. You first need a good infrastructure, then coaches, and then equipment,” he said.
He said that picture is slowly changing as better facilities reach smaller places and more young players can follow their ambitions without leaving home early.
“I think this is a change. The bigger cities, I see this trend going forward. We will get most of our champions from smaller towns, smaller districts. They will start their initial career there, then move to bigger cities where they have better facilities,” he added.
Thousands of entries, too few good coaches
Padukone, who became the first Indian to win the All England Championships in 1980, said the priority now should be the base of the sport rather than only elite players and international medals. More children need to take up badminton, and they need to learn the correct technique from the start.
He gave the example of a recent Under-15 and Under-17 tournament that drew around 4,000 entries. The event needed 10 days of competition and 22 courts for the first five days.
Numbers like that, he said, show how popular badminton has become. They also show the size of the task facing the coaching system.
“There is definitely a big gap, and I think there is a very urgent need to address the quality of coaching. They are doing a reasonable job, but I think a lot more needs to be done,” Padukone said.
Players must share responsibility
Padukone also said a player’s progress cannot rest entirely on the coach. He spoke about young players who move from one academy to another after a run of defeats, often blaming their coaches rather than looking at their own weaknesses.
He made the point while discussing what academies can and cannot do. In his view, a coach can provide the method, but a young player also has to accept responsibility for losses and work on the areas that are not good enough.
The PSB–IISM partnership
The agreement brings together the Padukone School of Badminton and IISM, a sports management institute. The signing was attended by Rasika Kulkarni, Co-Founder and Managing Director of IISM; Nilesh Kulkarni, Founder-Director of IISM; Padukone, in his role as Mentor of the Padukone School of Badminton; and Tahsin Zahid, CEO of the Sports, Physical Education, Fitness and Leisure Sector Skills Council (SPEFL-SC).
Padukone, who was ranked world No. 1 in 1980, has spent much of the time since his playing career on coaching and player development through the Padukone School of Badminton.
