Parupalli Kashyap to retire; takes on challenge of guiding Kidambi Srikanth first-up

With injuries piling up and resuming his playing career looking difficult, former CWG champion and Olympian Parupalli Kashyap has decided he will announce retirement from the game soon. He was in Kidambi Srikanth’s coaching corner at the season-opening Malaysian Open, and said he will consult BAI president Himanta Sarma, his employers Indian Oil Corporation, sponsors Yonex and down the shutters on an impressive career, hopping into coaching full-time.

“The injuries are forcing me to quit though I haven’t officially announced retirement. Meantime I wanted to start working with Gopi sir because it would be foolish not to learn from his experience. I started with a batch of u17 and u19s for a month, and he gave me freedom to coach whoever I wanted to. Then Srikanth approached me to help him, and I’m thankful to Gopi Sir for giving me the opportunity to work with Srikanth,” he said.

The quarterfinalist from London Games and 2014 CWG gold winner, was one of Gopichand’s first students alongside academy mate Saina Nehwal and Guru Saidutt. While he picked a couple of Grand Prix titles and made finals of 2019 Canada Open, his results on the circuit in a period coinciding the best years of Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei, saw him battle valiantly but without title runs. He was a precursor to the current generation of Indian men’s singles players who met with greater success, though amongst the first to employ a physically sturdy game to make quarters and semis and the earliest of Gopichand’s successes.

A technically astute shutler, who didn’t mind the hard rigour of fitness, Kashyap had some impressive scalps. He beat world No 3 Chen Long at Indonesia in 2012, No 6 Wang Zhengming in 2014, No 3 Jan O Jorgensen at Denmark the same year and No 4 Kenichi Tago and No 9 Tian Houwei at French Open. He beat Viktor Axelsen twice in 2015, and reached a career high ranking of World No 6 in 2013.

While he has been in Nehwal’s corner for a couple of seasons even as he juggled a playing career, this will be his first foray into full-time coaching. As a new coach, he carries forward the philosophies and tactical acumen of Gopichand, joining buddy Guru Saidutt in helping out elite shuttlers. “My thoughts are clear – we have to produce more champions,” he says. “But it is all up to the players. They have to execute.”

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