CHENNAI: Chennai loves its sports franchises. Few can match the Chennai Super Kings, but the people of the city have generally shown affection for all the teams that represent them in the different leagues. Come next year, and they can support another side of their own — Chennai Superstarz, in the Premier Badminton League (PBL).
There will be a special reason for the locals to root for this franchise. In the squad is 15-year-old Sankar Muthusamy, who was bought for `1 lakh in the auctions. This makes the Chennai boy the youngest player in the upcoming edition of the PBL beginning on January 20, 2020.
Sankar took up badminton at a young age and was never short on belief that one day he would play the sport professionally. But for life to take him where it has, rain played a part.When he took up sports, tennis was his first love.He switched to another racquet sport to avoid missing practice sessions due to the weather.And also, he was familiar with badminton. His sister, the 18-year-old Lakshmi Priyanka, is also a shuttler, with whom Sankar shares the court in the mixed doubles category.
The former DAV School student, who is thankful to his family for their support, has started finding out how tough it is to pursue a career in sports. “I’ve been playing international senior circuits in Bahrain,
Dubai, Malaysia and these trips are expensive.” Currently, he is sponsored by Gosports and Khelo India. To play as many international tournaments as a rising player should, he needs more funds.
The Mogappair resident is all praise for coach Aravindan Samiappan, who is also head coach of the Chennai Superstarz. Swamiappan played an important role in Sankar’s career and helped improve his defensive game to strike a balance.
Sankar is also thankful to the franchise owner R Sivakumar for believing in him. The fan of Chinese legend Lin Dan has opted for open schooling from this year to focus solely on the sport. Asked about role models from other disciplines, he says “Dhoni”.
Back to badminton, he is keen to learn from experience and remembers matches where he did well for inspiration. “Beating senior players like Shreyan Jaishwal, Chirag Singh are some of the high points in my career,” says the player ranked 433rd in the world.
Sankar made headlines during the Tamil Nadu Badminton Super League auctions where he was one of the highly-paid players. It was a big platform and the time spent with Tiruppur Warriors made him understand the dynamics of a league. “Playing in this format for the first time was a different experience as I understood the importance of team coordination in a league,” says the player.
Looking ahead to the bigger league that he will soon become a part of, Sankar feels his team has all bases covered, but adds that in a competition like this, “anything can happen”. His short-term goals are to win international titles and make it to the Super 100 level of tournaments. In the long run, he aims at podium in the Olympics.