Former Indian players can double up as coaches to handle paucity of foreign coaches: PV Sindhu

World champion shuttler P V Sindhu believes foreign coaches would be difficult to hire in a post COVID-19 world, presenting former India internationals the opportunity to step forward and fill in the void.

"If the global pandemic continues, bringing coaches from abroad might become difficult, there are a lot of good players in our country who have played at international level, and we can use them in a coaching capacity," Sindhu said on Monday while speaking during an webinar.

The Olympic silver-medallist was addressing the newly-appointed Assistant Directors of the Sports Authority of India through an online session.

Sindhu stressed on the importance of parents, coaches, administrators working as a team to build up a champion.

"The administrators must know the journey of every sportsperson. The future of Indian sports lies in the hands of young sports administrators like all of you," she said.

"You must visit all the SAI regional centres and be aware of the performances from the players and be in touch with their parents. The parent's involvement is a lot and you need to take feedback from them. This feedback needs to be monitored."
The 24-year-old from Hyderabad also said "players must be continuously tracked to avoid age fraud."
"My father taking leave from his service really helped me. He used to take me to the Railways ground."