‘Determination determines destiny’ is written large on a wall in MV Murali Krishna’s office. He is a city-based badminton coach whostarted the one-of-its-kind badminton academy in Visakhapatnam.
A step inside the Vadlapudi-based Laqshya Badminton Academy and you are in the company of huge posters of world badminton champions. Standing there is the 49-year-old Murali, surrounded by students who are listening to him in rapt attention as he holds forth on the importance of body balance on court. The hugehall with six badminton courts has over 60 students and yet all one hears is the smash of a shuttle . “Discipline is the key to survive in the academy”, says Murali.
“Apart from being a physically-demanding game, badminton is also a lot of mind game. One needs to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent and make a game plan while being on the court. These are the skills that we teach the players,” says Murali. The day at the academy begins at 4.30 am where the students are taught the tactics and techniques of the game. This is followed by a two-hour physical training session. The budding players are expected to be on court by 10 am. While the morning sessions are specially crafted for those who are planning to take up the sport professionally, the evening sessions see amateurs trying to swing their racquet right. “The ideal age to start training is between seven and eight years as we are able to mould the players more easily during when t hey are young,” he says. According to Murali, the sport is also about life lessons. “Good badminton players are determined by their fast reflexes, effective reactions, physical endurance and the strategy they form against an opponent,” he says.
The journey begins
Born in Alluru, Murali’s introduction to the sport was accidental when his friends ditched playing marbles and took up badminton. “It wasn’t this sophisticated; we played on the streets and kept hitting the people passing by,” he laughs.
Over time, he realised that his game was better than that of his friends and this piqued his interest in the game. He started frequenting the District Sports Authority stadium to watch the matches of players who were training under the renowned badminton coach Ganguly Prasad. “Once I played matches with several senior players and managed to beat them all. That was when Ganguly Prasad suggested I take up the sport and hence began my journey when I was a 13-year-old boy,” he says.
At the age of 17, Murali represented Andhra Pradesh at the Nationals alongside the current coach of the Indian badminton team Pullela Gopichand. “ I was also selected for the Sports Authority of India’s hostel in Secunderabad. Unfortunately, I wasn’t financially well-off to participate and had to give up the sport,” he says.
In 1992, the then 22-year-old Murali left the hostel and moved to the city to work at the Visakhapatnam Port Trust. At the beginning of his career, work kept him busy and badminton slipped out of his schedule. It was his wife Chandrakala who urged him to rekindle his passion for the game. “I represented the State at the Nationals consistently for seven years from 1999 to 2006,” he says.
During this time, Murali was also coaching young badminton talent in the city at Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium. In 2006, he decided to back his coaching with a formal degree from the National Institute of Sports in Patiala. He came back to the city and resumed his coaching. He realised that now was the time to achieve a dream that he had been nurturing for a long time. “I wanted to make a world champion, train someone from the grassroot level and turn him or her into a force the world would appreciate,” he says.
MV Murali Krishna | Photo Credit: KR DEEPAK
A step closer
Murali started the Laqshya Badminton Academy last year. Inaugurated by film director SS Rajamouli, the academy has six badminton courts, a swimming pool, an air-conditioned gym and a hostel. Over 100 students train under Murali at the academy. They come from the various districts of Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“ It was after the winning streak of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, that badminton came into limelight. In a cricket-crazy nation, we started seeing the love for badminton grow. When I was coaching in the early 2000s there were hardly two training centres in the city. Today, there are over 10 coaches running institutes in Visakhapatnam,” he says. He believes that the sport has a bright future in the country as more parents are looking at it as a serious career option and encouraging their kids to join the academy.