KUALA LUMPUR: Former world No. 1 K. Srikanth believes the Malaysian men's singles department could benefit from Indonesian badminton guru Mulyo Handoyo's approach.
Mulyo, renowned for guiding Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat to the 2004 Athens Olympic gold medal, is expected to be announced by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) as a replacement for his countryman, Hendrawan, who concluded a 15-year tenure with BAM.
Srikanth, currently in town for this week's Malaysia Super 100, trained under Mulyo in 2017— a year that saw him flourish, winning four titles in five Super Series finals. Mulyo's influence extended to several elite players in the Indian squad at that time, including H.S. Prannoy and B. Sai Praneeth, the 2023 and 2019 World Championships bronze medallists, respectively.
A coach of Mulyo's calibre is undoubtedly a much-needed boost for Malaysia, which has struggled to produce major-contending and title-winning players since Lee Chong Wei.
"I think if Mulyo comes here, then it might definitely help local players," said Srikanth, a member of the 2022 Thomas Cup-winning squad.
Srikanth described Mulyo as a coach capable of elevating players' standards across all aspects of their game.
"He (Mulyo) was very good, obviously. And his maybe, whatever his style was, it really helped me," he recalled.
"It's overall, be it strategy, fitness, skills and everything else."
Mulyo left India in February 2018 to take on a new challenge with Singapore, leaving Srikanth to ponder how much more he could have improved had the Indonesian stayed longer.
"Maybe. You never know," replied Srikanth hypothetically.
"Maybe if he would have been there for another... three, four years, maybe, would have really helped.
"It's always important to have that one (regular) coach. When that particular coach is there, it's always easier to follow him, but if he's not there, it's not easy to replicate that."
Since making four semi-final appearances in 2022, Srikanth's fortunes have trended downward, even dropping out of the world's top 30.
He aims to build on his recent momentum, following a quarter-final finish at the Macau Open last month, with another strong performance in the Super 100 tournament at Juara Stadium this week.
Srikanth enters the tournament as the second seed and has received a bye into the second round.