Indian legendary badminton coach Pullela Gopichand has proposed an idea on Wednesday to resume back the game of badminton by organising multiple mini-leagues among top athletes in the country in a bio-secure bubble.

Speaking in a webinar, he said, “It may not be possible to organise massive national or state level tournaments like we used to pre-Covid, due to social distancing norms. But we can surely look at a number of leagues in each sport among top players, as per their levels. “

Gopichand proposal soon got backing by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla. He said that his federation had been working on precisely those lines to keep his athletes in fine fettle and top form with an eye on the Olympics next year.

“Our elite athletes have been in camps since June and will go into deep training from October. We have just chalked out our detailed programme calendar and we are hoping to see serious completion from January onwards,” Sumariwalla said.