Senior Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa, who had a disappointing Paris Olympics 2024 campaign losing all three games alongside her women's doubles partner Tanisha Crasto, has come forward in support of Lakshya Sen and other players of the badminton contingent that participated in the competition following Prakash Padukone's comments. Ponnappa said that it was sad to see that as soon as a player loses, it is suddenly their fault and asked why shouldn't the coaches take responsibility.
Taking cognisance of Padukone's remarks, Ponnappa wrote on her Instagram story, "Disappointing to see this. If a player wins, everyone jumps on the bandwagon to take credit, and if they lose, it's just the player's fault?!"
"Why aren't coaches held responsible for lack of preparation and getting the player ready? They are the first ones to take credit for wins; why not take responsibility for their players' losses as well? At the end of the day, winning takes team effort and losing is also the team's responsibility. You can't suddenly push the player under the bus and blame it all on the player," she added.
Following Sen's defeat in the bronze medal match against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, Padukone urged the players to take responsibility saying that the federations and government can no longer be held accountable as they are doing whatever they can. Padukone also urged the players to introspect and see where they are going wrong.
"After Milkha Singh in 64′ and PT Usha in the 80s, we have so many fourth place finishes. I think that it’s high time that the players also take responsibility. Atleast for the results in this Olympics and the previous one, you cannot hold the federations and government responsible for the results. They have all done whatever they can. Ultimately the responsibility is on the players to go and deliver when it matters the most,” Padukone said while speaking to the reporters.
It was for the first time since 2012 that India failed to win a medal in badminton as the streak got broken with Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, PV Sindhu, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Ponnappa-Crasto all failing to reach the medal events in their respective competitions.
