Project JumpSmash will help promising players without adequate means and sponsorships, through their early stage international badminton career.

Promising badminton players who are working extremely hard at their game need an opportunity to make it to the international big league. While coaching academies set up by Olympian stalwarts such Gopichand, Prakash Padukone and Anup Sridhar exist to help these players improve their game, international play involves funding support.

Players make it to prime international tournaments (called Super Series) after moderate to high success in early stage international tournaments (called Future, Series and Challenger tournaments). This requires players to travel to different parts of the world to participate in such tournaments, and therefore the need for funding.

• Tournament planning
  • Help players make the right choices of international tournaments they should participate in, in alignment with their current world ranking and funds available.
• Tickets and visa:
  • Support in identifying the cheapest fares
  • Financial assistance for tickets and visa
• Entry fees and Stay:
  • Create a network of friendlies who will be happy to host players during tournaments. Where not possible, provide financial assistance for stay and food during tournaments.
• Well rounded training:
  • Enable a well-rounded training plan of fitness, injury prevention and nutrition by tying up with experts who are happy to be a part of the project.
  • Financial assistance and support.

Typical beneficiaries definitely don’t live below poverty line. While they have funds for a basic lifestyle and badminton training, they don’t have the means to participate in these international tournaments which are needed to make it to the international big league.

Rajesh Krishnamurthy and Kavitha Rajesh are the main project coordinators. Their son is training to be a professional badminton player, and therefore they are well connected to the national badminton circuit.

Rajesh has an academic background from IIT-Mumbai and IIM-Lucknow and is the Chief Operations Officer at Sumeru Software as well as being on the Board of several corporates. Kavitha has a degree in Life Sciences from Sophia College, Mumbai and is a homemaker.

Each player’s early stage international campaign requires approximately 10 lacs per year. It is, therefore, important to select deserving players after careful vetting. Kavitha and Rajesh are well-connected with players who are candidates for this project and will jointly evaluate and recommend beneficiaries to Kriti.