‘Making Excuses is Where The Country Will Win Gold Medal’: Sunil Gavaskar Slams Lakshya Sen

Much debate has arisen from Prakash Padukone’s rant following Lakshya Sen’s loss in the Bronze Medal Match at the Paris Olympics on Monday when the head coach went on to lambast athletes of the Indian contingent for their lack of effort to bring home Olympic glory.

“At least 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 stated in talks with reporters after Sen’s loss in the Bronze medal match.

Sporting personalities from all over have come to the support of Padukone, and one of the latest names to voice their support for the former badminton ace is legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar.

Gavaskar first highlighted the significance of someone like Padukone himself, who is perceived to be reticent, to lash out the way he did, and gave the former badminton great his flowers initially.

He has always been reticent and publicity-shy, and he goes about his life with as much quiet as his famous dribble at the net. Therefore, his frank comments after the badminton disappointment came as a surprise to so many who have known him over the years to keep his counsel and not say much,” stated Gavaskar.

“Making excuses is where our country will win gold medals every single time, so the debate around his assessment was more about that than looking without tinted glasses at what he said.”

He then backed Padukone’s statements, reinstating that it was indeed the feeble mentality of players, such as Lakshya Sen who incurred the toughest loss in Badminton, in crunch time that cost them dearly.

“As he (Sen) came to the cusp of an Olympic medal, Prakash was by the courtside along with the hard-working and indefatigable Vimal Kumar to see the fulfillment of not just Lakshya’s dream but also that of the entire community of Indian badminton lovers,” Gavaskar wrote in his piece for Sportstar.

“He, Vimal Kumar, the BAI, and the government’s TOPS had done everything possible, but when it came to the crunch, Lakshya was, in the famous words of the Indian cricket team captain (Rohit Sharma), ‘garden mein ghoomne wala.’”

The legendary batter also expounded on the importance of mental training to retain focus and concentration at the biggest of moments, and pointed at the seeming lack of the same in Sen during his matches at the Olympics as a reason for his downfall.

“Concentration and focus are things that no coach or trainer can ever teach. It can be developed over the years by the athlete by observing other champions and having an inner resolve, but there’s no specific program for it. Yes, mind trainers are around, but they can only do so much and not more. It’s got to be within the athlete,” Gavaskar wrote.