Vincent and Jaseel have also been nominated to represent the country in the forthcoming European circuit, for which they qualified by winning the Gold Flake All-India Open recently. But the government is yet to give them the green signal. Badminton players are known to have a bias towards singles. Vincent is an exception. It is more of a challenge, much faster.
Doubles requires more skill than stamina.
The Badminton Association of India has insisted that doubles has been India's weakness. Before the Commonwealth Championship last year, BAI executive president Prakash Padukone had stated in Mumbai that India needed a special foreign coach in doubles. But surprisingly, India's top doubles pairs have not been able to benefit from Dong's presence. Firstly, the doubles players practise intheir respective cities, while Dong is based at SAI, Bangalore. The only time the players meet the coach is during National camps.