Updated on: Dec 02, 2025 07:51 pm IST
“Prakash wanted to retire and concentrate on other ventures, primarily the Padukone School of Badminton (PSB) which focuses on grassroot level badminton programmes,” CBE’s head coach U Vimal Kumar told HT from Mumbai on Tuesday.
“He had been expressing his thoughts for quite some time and then took the decision. Everything remains the same at the now called CBE. We will continue to identify players who can rise to the top. CBE will keep functioning the same way.”
PPBA, co-founded in 1994 by Padukone, Vimal and Vivek Kumar, will continue to operate from the Centre for Sports Excellence, Bengaluru, with its current coaching team led Vimal and supported by former India international Sagar Chopda, DK Sen (Lakshya Sen’s father), Umendra Singh Rana and international coaches Yong Sung Yoo and Irwansyah Adi Pratama.
India No.1 Lakshya — the most famous product of PPBA — will continue to train at CBE with South Korean coach Yong while two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will resume training with Indian women’s coach Irwansyah after she recovers from injury.
Other Indian shuttlers who train at CBE are Ayush Shetty, Kiran George, Devika Sihag and Isha Rani Barua.
On the other hand, PSB — founded and funded by actress and Padukone’s daughter Deepika — has started centres in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
While former All England champion Padukone is the mentor of PSB, former India shuttler Aditya Prakash is the head coach.
