India’s Anup Sridhar joins Singapore Badminton Association as singles coach

SINGAPORE – The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) has beefed up its coaching stable with the appointment of former top India men’s singles player Anup Sridhar, subject to the successful application of his employment pass.

However, SBA vice-president (business development and communications) David Tan clarified on Jan 20 that Sridhar will be hired as a singles coach under South Korean Kim Ji-hyun’s guidance, instead of the men’s singles head coach as reported by Indian media.

Previous media reports had erroneously stated that the 41-year-old would be “taking over from famous coach Mulyo Handoyo”, and that he has been appointed the “men’s singles head coach of the Singapore badminton team”.

Tan told The Straits Times: “Our national team are made up of players at different development stages and world-ranking levels, and therefore have different coaching, training and competition needs.

“We are looking to address this by bringing in more coaches with different abilities... SBA had advertised for the position of an additional singles coach whose credentials include a minimum of five years’ experience within a national badminton team structure with a primary focus on singles.”

Sridhar, who won a bronze medal at the 2007 Asian championships, captained India’s Thomas Cup team in 2006 and 2008, and played at the 2008 Olympics.

He has worked with top-level players like Commonwealth Games champions Lakshya Sen and P.V. Sindhu – who won the world title in 2019 – after retiring from competitive badminton in 2015.

Having learnt from former world No. 1 and All England champion Prakash Padukone in their home city of Bangalore, he was also a coach at the Karnataka Badminton Association. Sridhar was at the Jan 14-19 India Open to watch Singapore’s top singles players Yeo Jia Min, Loh Kean Yew and Jason Teh in action.

His appointment comes amid a slew of changes in the SBA’s coaching and management teams.

In October 2024, ST revealed that SBA would be moving national singles head coach Kelvin Ho to the national training squad to develop the next generation of players.

It was also looking to appoint separate men and women’s singles head coaches to take them to the next level.

But ST understands that the search for a suitable men’s singles head coach has hit a snag, after the SBA was turned down by two reputable Indonesian coaches.

Hendrawan, a long-serving coach with the Malaysian national team who was responsible for former world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei and Lee Zii Jia’s success, returned to Indonesia to join the Djarum Badminton Club.

Irwansyah Adi Pratama, a long-time mentor of Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting, left the national team to become the women’s singles head coach of India.

With the 2025 season kicking off, many top coaches have already been snapped up, leaving the SBA with just women’s singles head coach Kim, who joined on Jan 1 and also oversees the men’s singles players.

As such, observers have questioned why SBA decided to redeploy Ho without first securing the services of the two new coaches.

Interim SBA chief executive officer Arun Cavale, who was previously its vice-president (pathway and development), said Ho’s redesignation was important for its “long-term strategy to invest in youth development and prepare our players for the 2032 Olympic Games”.

He added that it may proceed with just Kim at the helm for the senior singles players, saying: “SBA acknowledges the complexities involved in recruiting world-class coaching talent, especially given the competitive landscape and the availability of top names being tied to other national teams.

“The separation of men and women’s singles coaches is an idea we are considering, but no definitive decision has been made. Factors such as the availability of suitable candidates, financial resources, cultural alignment and timing will guide our approach.

“Our focus remains on securing the best candidates... We are investing in experienced coaches like Anup Sridhar to provide enhanced support for our players in training and during competitions.

“They strengthen our coaching team and are expected to deliver improved results across the board.”

There are other roles in SBA to fill, after technical director Martin Andrew and CEO Alan Ow departed in August and December 2024 respectively.

Tan said that they are in the final phases of interviewing candidates for the CEO position, while Cavale will fill the role in the interim. He also updated that the search for a technical director is ongoing.

Tan said: “A technical director has to be a highly competent administrator, a masterful strategist, and one who is able to lead a team of coaches and high-performance managers within SBA.

“We are confident we will get there, and we are working closely with the Singapore Sport Institute to ensure the effective running of our competition scheduling and each athlete’s overall developmental pathway.”