Kidambi Srikanth
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July 2014: near-fatal brain fever
When brain fever almost got Srikanth
Manne Ratnakar The Times of India Nov 17 2014 Hyderabad
From the jaws of death to the podium in the Mecca of badminton -China, Kidambi Srikanth has endured a rollercoaster ride in 2014.
Srikanth was found unconscious in the washroom in the first week of July .Neither chief coach Pullela Gopichand nor his mother Subbaravamma, who looks after the Academy, were present at the venue. The 21-year old, who is also the first Indian to win a Grand Prix Gold outside In dia, was shifted to a corporate hos pital where the doctors said he had brain fever. A worried Gopi and Srikanth's family waited with bated breath as the shuttler was recovering in the ICU. “We were worried about his survival. He went through the most dangerous phase of his life. From then on it was a big task for us to motivate him. He struggled in a few tournaments after that. But all along he was confident and working very hard,“ Gopichand said, adding that beating Lin Dan in China was no mean task.
The Guntur lad arrived at the Gopichand Academy in 2008-09 in dramatic circumstances. His brother Nandagopal is a trainee at the Academy and Srikanth was testing the patience of his parents without doing anything worthwhile. It was at this juncture Srikanth's father pleaded with Gopi to allow his younger son to join the academy. Srikanth was soon drafted into the doubles and mixed doubles training teams. By 2011, Gopi noticed that the teenager has a lot of promise. He soon moved Srikanth to the singles and it is then the career graph of Srikanth began to rise.
During the Indian Badminton League, coach of world No.1 Lee Chong Wei, Tae Je Bok asked an Indian official about Srikanth. Tae told the official that Srikanth resembles Wei in his movement and approach. His prophecy that Srikanth will one day become a great player came true in Nov 2014.
