Santoso to join Indian badminton team next month as singles coach

Experienced Indonesian coach Agus Dwi Santoso will be assisting India's singles badminton players, including Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu, from next month as they prepare for the Tokyo Games later this year.

Santoso comes in after the unceremonious exit of South Korea's Kim Ji Hyun, who left abruptly last September after guiding Sindhu to an unprecedented World Championships gold medal.

Santoso has been roped in to guide the singles players -- both men and women -- ahead of the Games, scheduled to be held from July 24 to August 9.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Friday wrote to the Indonesian authorities to grant visa to Santoso at the earliest after Sports Ministry cleared his appointment on Wednesday.

"I am directed to refer to SAI's letter .. to convey the approval for appointment of Mr Agus Dwi Santoso as foreign coach (singles) in the sports discipline of badminton at the salary of USD 8000 p.m... for a period of up to Olympic 2020," Sports Ministry wrote in a letter to SAI.

Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary, Ajay Singhania said the visa process has started and Santoso is likely to join the Indian team in the mid of next month.

"SAI has written to the Indonesian authorities to grant him visa for his employment as foreign coach in badminton. So he will get his working visa and he can start by second week of March. It is unlikely that he will be able to join the team for All England," Singhania told PTI.

"He is a very good coach and we hope to extend his contract till 2024 Olympics. If his performance is satisfactory then we will approach SAI again."