Mulyo Handoyo: Magic Man coming back to train Indian players

Mulyo Handoyo: Badminton Association of India hope to rope in former coaches — Indonesian Mulyo Handoyo and Malaysian doubles coach Tan Kim Her by the end of this year. Currently, their names have been sent to SAI for approval and the final modalities are being worked upon. Follow BWF World Campionships and badminton Live updates on InsideSport.IN

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Mulyo Handoya had been credited with the uptick in form of Kidambi Srikanth, which briefly saw him become World No 1. The Indonesian hard taskmaster has a proven pedigree with him being the former coach of Indonesian legend Taufik Hidayat.

Mulyo Handoyo: Magic Man is coming back to train Indian singles players

And his fitness-intensive methods bore fruit with Indian shuttlers like Srikanth winning multiple titles, B Sai Praneeth winning his first Super Series title while HS Prannoy claimed major wins against higher ranked players.

“We are hopeful that both the coaches will start working with our shuttlers within the end of this year. For us, the aim has always been to do the best for our shuttlers and we wanted coaches with a proven track-record and for our players to be familiar with the working methods,” BAI secretary general Ajay Singhania told InsideSport.

“Our chief coach Pullela Gopichand is negotiating with them regarding salary and accommodation. Contracts of all our coaches are ending this December so we need to finalise soon,” he added.

The drop in standards in terms of fitness has been mentioned by former coach Vimal Kumar in the past. It can also be gauged from the fact that Indians have hardly contested in finals recently.

Mulyo Handoyo: Magic Man is coming back to train Indian singles players

The appointments gain even greater significance considering the upcoming Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Malaysian Tan Kim Her had worked with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in their transition years and will be expected to guide the burgeoning bunch of young doubles specialists, coming through the junior ranks.

Former singles coach Agus Dwi Santoso had quit his post in November, a month short of completing his contract. The Badminton Association of India had advertised for coaching vacancies on November 18.

Mulyo Handoyo: Magic Man is coming back to train Indian singles players

Apart from the incoming foreign coaches, BAI also plans to use their expertise to build up a strong foundation of Indian coaches. Those names will be decided soon and the coaches are expected to work in close proximity with Mulyo and Tan.

“We want to build a strong group of Indian coaches. They will work along with the foreign coaches,” Singhania added.

At the BWF World Championships, India’s coaches will be singles coach Siyadatullah, doubles coach Arun Vishnu and PV Sindhu’s personal coach Korean Park Tae Sang.

With doubles coach Dwi Kristiawan not getting visa on time, the four singles players, three men’s doubles pairs, one women’s doubles pair and PV Sindhu’s workload will be shared by Siyadatullah, Arun Vishnu and coach Park.

Mulyo Handoyo: Magic Man is coming back to train Indian singles players

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