Kolkata : Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at Indian athletes performance at Paris Olympics 2024, where they failed to win any gold medals & finished bagging 6 medals.
Many criticisms, debates have sparked after Prakash Padukone’s statement where he held the players to be responsible for the losses. This came after Lakshya Sen lost the Bronze medal match, thereby, India finishing all medals hopes in Badminton.
Many said the coaches should also be responsible for player’s loss, on other hand, many came to support Padukone’s statement. The latest support came from Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar.
“He (Prakash Padukone) has always been reticent and publicity-shy, and he goes about his life with as much quiet as his famous dribble at the net. Therefore, his frank comments after the badminton disappointment came as a surprise to so many who have known him over the years to keep his counsel and not say much,” stated Gavaskar.
“Making excuses is where our country will win gold medals every single time, so the debate around his assessment was more about that than looking without tinted glasses at what he said“, Gavaskar added.
Backing Padukone and lashing the feeble mentality of players like Lakshya, he said, “As he (Sen) came to the cusp of an Olympic medal, Prakash was by the courtside along with the hard-working and indefatigable Vimal Kumar to see the fulfillment of not just Lakshya’s dream but also that of the entire community of Indian badminton lovers,” Gavaskar wrote in his piece for Sportstar.
“He, Vimal Kumar, the BAI, and the government’s TOPS had done everything possible, but when it came to the crunch, Lakshya was, in the famous words of the Indian cricket team captain (Rohit Sharma), ‘garden mein ghoomne wala.’
Gavaskar threw light on the importance of mental training to retain focus and concentration at the biggest of moments, and took a dig at lack of the same in Sen during his matches at the Olympics as a reason for his crashing out.
“Concentration and focus are things that no coach or trainer can ever teach. It can be developed over the years by the athlete by observing other champions and having an inner resolve, but there’s no specific program for it. Yes, mind trainers are around, but they can only do so much and not more. It’s got to be within the athlete,” Gavaskar wrote.
Numerous Indian athletes lost their nerves in a battle they almost dominated as a result they missed a lot’s of medal opportunities.
