Danish Badminton Great Mathias Boe Likely To Return As India's Doubles Coach

Danish legend Mathias Boe is likely to return for a second stint as the doubles coach of the Indian badminton team after Malaysia's Tan Kim Her declined the offer despite the Sports Ministry approving his appointment. Boe, a London Olympics silver-medallist and former world No. 1 doubles player, had trained the Indian doubles players, including Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. "We were very keen to get Tan Kim Her and also had got the approval of SAI and ministry but then he refused to accept the offer. So he is not coming as of now," Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary general Sanjay Mishra told PTI.

"We are currently in discussion with Mathias Boe. He has the experience of training our players and had done well with Satwik and Chirag. Nothing is finalised yet but we are trying to get his services at least till the Asian Games if not beyond."

Boe had wanted to continue coaching the Indian doubles players after the Tokyo Olympics but not on a full time basis, something which was not acceptable to the federation.

BAI then got the approval of the ministry to appoint Tan Kim Her for a five year period till the 2026 Asian Games but the Malaysian refused to return for a second stint due to personal reasons.

It was under Boe's guidance that Satwik and Chirag won two of the three matches in their group at the Tokyo Olympics but couldn't make it to the knockout stage following a dramatic three-way tie for the two qualifying spots, which was decided on the basis of games won and lost.

Satwik and Chirag are currently in Mumbai for a week-long training stint with Boe to rectify the errors which has crept into their game, affecting their performance in the last few months.

"We have