Mathias Boe is worth his weight in gold As far as Indian badminton is concerned. He has navigated and steered the men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy to dizzying heights and career best rank off World number 3. They have won the Gold medals in Thomas Cup, individual and team Gold in Commonwealth Games, Badminton Asia Gold, Bronze in the World Championship last year, India Open Gold, Swiss Open and Thailand Open titles and recently the Indonesian Masters where they collected a cheque of 92,000 USD, probably the biggest cash prize any member of our senior squad has received so far in Indian team.
Seeing and savouring such high class performance by our players of late, the Sports ministry of Govt of India has opened its purse strings to ensure that Boe gets what he needs, starting from a terrific salary the he receives, which if I am told us as much as 8000 USD (₹ 6,56,000) monthly from the SAI.
This is good for Indian badminton as top performance coaches will be highly interested and attracted to work in India.
A hard taskmaster, Boe was also ranked world number one along with Carsten Mogensen his long-time partner. A silver medallist at Olympics 2012, he had also won the Thomas Cup Gold.
India will forever be indebted to this 42-year-old genius who is now priming his two boys to excel at the World Championships and the Asian Games to be held later this year.
Excerpts:
When did you feel and realise that you could be an outstanding coach?
I am not the one to judge whether I am an outstanding coach or not. I just go around doing my work with utmost sincerity every day, try to do best for the boys and push them as hard as possible. Obviously, I have had lots of experience as a professional for 20 years or as a top player in the world for almost a decade. So I know what it takes, how hard it is to become a top player. I was really active with my coaches, planning my training routines. I was interested in the techniques. But things have changed with defence and offence training as the rallies have become shorter, but faster. The game has become more physical and you need to play around the service area. I try to be an all-round coach.
In practical terms, I coach them as per requirements needed to face our main opponents from Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia etc. We try to win in the easiest way and what do we need to counter them. So I teach our boys to excel in every department of the game. Satwiksairaj was not very strong in defence but I worked hard on this aspect for many months and you can see the difference. Similarly Chirag was not strong in offense but now he is comfortable there. So I bring my experience and background into the coaching and ensure that it benefits them.
How did you land up in India to become the national doubles coach?
Well, I used to come to India regularly in the past due to personal reasons (he had been dating Bollywood actress Tapsee Pannu for some time now). And since I was still playing competitively needed to practice that’s how I met Chirag and we started to practice together in Mumbai. Even when I retired i use to come to Mumbai often. So I have known him for 6-7 years now. One day he called me and said that their national coach is retiring and leaving the country. So he asked me to join the Indian squad as the new doubles coach as he was comfortable with me. So we took it forward from there and in initially I trained them before the Olympics for 6 months. They played well. Then in India, the association was waiting for another coach to join on contract but that did not happen.
So I was approached to take up the coaching again for 6 months or so, till the Thomas Cup. I agreed since Chirag and Satwiksairaj wanted me only and they pushed hard with the BAI and the TOPS scheme of SAI, to get me under contract the soonest. I was not doing much in those days and welcomed the opportunity to do something interesting. So that’s how I came to be officially the national doubles coach.
The time in between was very frustrating for me as I watched the Matches on TV and I felt that since I miss the playing days the closest I could come to the game was as a coach. And so why not India where I see huge potential and if I could get in the system then the upcoming players here can learn a lot from me. I missed the tour and felt I could give back something to the game which was not developing as fast as it could. So since my time was over as a player I grabbed the opportunity to become a coach, and that’s how I am in India.
Are Chirag and Satwiksairaj on top of their game or is there still areas which need improvement?
I think that you never stop learning. It is an ongoing process for any ambitious player. So that is the only thing you can control. You cannot control how hard your opponents are training and how they are shaping up. You can push yourself to become better and better in all areas.
So they must try to win big titles and aim at being number 1. They have to be hungry for success all the time, no matter how good you are currently. So there is room for improvement all the time. You can’t be satisfied with what you have right now.
Can India become a World power in the doubles events?
A world power in doubles may not immediately happen … but yes, why not!
We have shown way forward with Satwiksairaj and Chirag that you can win the major titles with proper training. And a positive outlook. Any player can aspire to becoming a champion. There is no restriction. It is about how hard you train, how badly you want it. Train and train is the mantra … and of course talent. But that’s another story.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag are today top players and rest of the world acknowledge them. But the major badminton powers have many pairs of top standard. Our tough opponents are also looking at us with unease. In the next spot we have Dhruv (Kapila) and (MR) Arjun who cannot be taken lightly at all. In fact it is not just in singles, but doubles also that they are wary to face an Indian. Of course we have improved a lot but we can do with more. We had top players in singles for almost a decade so it is a natural development that we are getting stronger in doubles.
It may be too early to call us a powerhouse in world badminton but we are getting there. In fact there are many players in junior categories who look at Satwiksairaj and Chirag’s success and think they can also win. There is lots of self-belief now in the new generation of players.
Chirag and Satwiksairaj are world No.3, on way to that dream spot of world No.1. How important is the top rank? Do you actually train towards it?
Well it is the ultimate desire of every sportsman to be world No.1! I would be lying if I say the rankings does not matter. But one has to have good consistency to reach that spot. You have to play many tournaments. Unfortunately, Satwiksairaj had some injuries because of which we missed crucial events. And we did not do well in couple of tournaments recently. Many experts do believe we are the No.1 pair today. But to me, it is more important to win the major titles and bring medals to India. And logically if you win the big titles you are on way to the top rankings anyway. So consciously you work to win the major titles. That does not also mean that I will not be happy being No.1. Of course, I will be very proud of the boys when they achieve that exalted status. Yes, it does sound nice when you see your name on top of the totem pole.
So is Mathias Boe worth his weight in gold as far as Indian badminton is concerned. Yes, it is correct. He is the best thing that has happened to the sport. He has brought discipline, foresight, self-belief and confidence in our players who are enriching with his presence. The best thing that is happening out there is that many young players feel that if Satwiksairaj and Chirag can be world No. 1, then they also could emulate their heroes. And the 8000 dollars salary has helped India badminton to elevate its status.
With so much hype surrounding the game after pioneering success by Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu and all the men’s singles shuttlers, and now the outstanding career graph of Satwiksairaj and Chirag, the coaches are making good living. Starting from INR 40000 monthly for middle-level to INR 7 lakh going to a senior coach, it is a boom Indian badminton is witnessing and that augurs well for the future of the sport in the country.
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