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“Shri Nandu Natekar has a particular place in India’s sporting historical past. He was an impressive badminton participant and an excellent mentor,” Modi tweeted.
“His success continues to inspire budding athletes. Saddened by his demise. My ideas are along with his household and buddies on this unhappy hour. Om Shanti,” the prime minister mentioned.
Natekar, who was thought-about one of the well-liked sportspersons of his time, was additionally a former world quantity three.
Sports activities Minister Anurag Thakur described Natekar as “an distinctive badminton participant.” “In 1961 he was conferred with the celebrated Arjuna Award. A era of athletes have drawn inspiration from him. Honest condolences to his household & buddies,” Thakur tweeted.
Chief badminton nationwide coach Pullela Gopichand described Natekar as a “true legend” of the sport whereas Vimal Kumar credited him for his initiation to the game.
“For us, he’s a real legend in Indian badminton. He’s somebody who’s well-respected and we have now heard tales about him. He not solely performed badminton however tennis on the highest degree.
“He belonged to that period, the place he, together with Suresh Goel, Dinesh Khanna and Prakash Padukone, have been up there,” Gopichand, India’s chief nationwide coach, informed PTI.
It was tennis’ loss however badminton’s achieve as Natekar may have continued with the previous had he not misplaced the 1951-52 Nationwide junior closing to Ramanathan Krishnan.
“He was comfortable (spoken) particular person and an excellent gentleman. He was affectionate and all the time had eager curiosity in current day badminton. He had such precision and understanding of angles, he was an athlete as a result of he may adapt to tennis and badminton,” Gopichand mentioned.
“He had such lovely fingers, abilities and in addition his motion.” Former India coach Vimal Kumar mentioned his father was a giant fan of Natekar and that is how he bought into the game.
“My father was a giant fan of him and in reality it was after he noticed him throughout a nationwide occasion at (then) Trivandrum that he put up an out of doors courtroom at our home and that is how I bought initiated into badminton,” he mentioned.
“I may solely see him play when he received the veteran All England within the Nineteen Eighties. He was as well-liked because the cricketers within the 50s and other people used to line as much as watch him play.” Abdul Shaikh, who performed with Natekar within the Maharashtra staff earlier than shifting to Canada in 1967, additionally had plenty of good recollections.
“I’m very sorry to listen to this information. He was one of the fashionable and swish worldwide gamers I’ve seen in my life,” Shaikh, who went on to teach the Canada badminton staff, informed PTI from Vancouver.
“I had partnered him in India Open within the Sixties. We had misplaced to Malaysia within the finals. He was somebody who truly picked up his very good backhand from Wong Peng Quickly of Malaysia. He was such an excellent stroke participant and had lovely footwork.”
In his distinguished profession, Natekar made it to the quarterfinals of the celebrated All England Championships in 1954 and have become the primary Indian participant to win a global occasion when he claimed the Sellanger Worldwide in Malaysia in 1956.
He was additionally received 12 out of the 16 singles matches and eight out of 16 in doubles as a part of the Indian staff on the Thomas Cup between 1951 and 1963. He additionally had the excellence of main the nation within the match in 1959, 1961 and 1963.
He had additionally represented India on the 1965 Commonwealth Video games in Jamaica. PTI
