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29 March 2024

Lankan star aims to form Emirati women’s badminton team

Published
By Allaam Ousman

Former Sri Lanka national badminton champion Sriyani Deepika feels there is potential among Emirati girls to produce world-class players.

Her goal is to form a UAE national women's team to compete in international tournaments.

The Dubai-based coach has been encouraged by the performance of Emirati players at the Peace and Sport Cup - Women in Badminton - Dubai 2014 held in April where Noaf Saeed Adbulla won third place in doubles.

"Ten Emirati girls coached by me took part. For the first time in history of UAE, Emirati women played badminton. It was very successful," said Deepika who ventured into coaching in Dubai by setting up her own academy Badminton-Dubai two years ago.

"Noaf is a very good player. Even other girls are good. I think we can build very good team," she added.

"We have to give encouragement. They don't know about badminton actually. Little by little I can see their improvement. Lot of people like badminton because it's an indoor game. My feeling is in one or two years, Emirati ladies will start playing badminton in UAE," Deepika said when asked about the potential of UAE players.

"Our main goal is to achieve World Badminton Federation (WBF) standards in coaching and to create a sustainable UAE badminton team for world tournaments," she added.

The BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Final to be held in December will also be another shot in the arm for the sport.

"All badminton fans will be very lucky to see top class players in Dubai," she said.

Deepika is working in association with the Dubai Sports Council and WBF Dubai Representative Jaffar Ibrahim from Bahrain to promote badminton within the UAE community (locals and expatriates).

"Main goal is we want to look for Emirati girls because we want to make a good UAE team in Dubai. I want to bring up a player to world standards," said Deepika who represented the Sri Lanka national team for 15 years in international tournaments.

Despite winning her last national title 10 years ago, the 46-year-old has not retired as a player and takes part in tournaments regularly.

"Still I take part in all tournaments in UAE and even come to the final of some events. If a coach is playing it is very easy to demonstrate. I don't want to stop playing," said Deepika, a certified coach who is a devoted full-time to coaching.

Her academy reaches out to universities, schools and clubs to promote badminton and offer professional coaching from the age of four with the aim of training beginners to become competitive players.

"We train all nationalities. They are very keen students. They love the game and even parents give lot of encouragement," she said.

Some of the students in the academy already dream of following in the footsteps of stars like Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei.

Aiman Kumar, 12, of Choueifat International School who hails from Delhi dreams of playing for India.

"I feel badminton increases stamina and reflexes. I have the passion for it," said Aiman whose favourite player is world number one Lee of Malaysia.

Aryan Trivedi, 10, of Indian High School, Dubai hails from Hyderabad, the same state as India's star Nehwal and is excited at his progress after just three months with the academy.

Advika Senthil Gopinath, 10, of Cambridge International School, Dubai, is determined to become a champion like Nehwal.

Sri Lankan Yashin Talaiver, 12, of Sheffield Pvt School and Nisha Kapitzki, 11, Greenfield Community School, Dubai, are fortunate to have mothers who have played badminton.

For Sheema Rodrigues, 14, of Our Own English High School, Dubai, it has been a lot of fun since she started playing badminton last year.

Badminton-Dubai conducts classes thrice a week at Bradenton Prep Academy in Dubai Sports City thrice a week, and also at Al Nahda area and Greenfield Community International School in Dubai Investment Park.

"We are in talks with the Dubai Sports Council to encourage badminton among Emirati women by training Physical Education teachers. Because if they learn, they will promote the game in the schools. We would to go into university area as well," said the assistant coach of Badminton-Dubai Rupa Mukherjee-Kapitzki who has played in national tournaments in India, Hong Kong and UAE for 10 years.

"There are a lot of players specially from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Maldives. The world badminton federation is introducing 'Shuttle Time' for students mainly. Basically we need to spread the word to make it a popular sport," she said.

SHUTTLE TIME DUBAI OPEN

The inaugural Shuttle Time Dubai Open will take place on October 10 from 2pm – 8pm at the Etisalat Academy, Dubai.

This event marks the first of a series of free-to-enter badminton tournaments in various venues across Dubai, as part of the Shuttle Time Dubai programme.

The tournament on Friday welcomes entries from male and female doubles pairs in the adult and U-17 categories.

To register for the Shuttle Time Dubai Open, please email info@shuttletimedubai.ae including the following details: name, age, nationality and contact phone number. Entries will be on a first-come-first-served basis.