Shunned as a player, Munna makes hay in coaching

2014 unfolded a dark chapter in Moynul Islam Munna's career. Despite being at his peak, Munna's career as a badminton player came to a standstill as he was barred from the national championship that year due to an internal clash between his coach and the tournament committee.

But instead of giving up, Munna chose to pursue a career as a badminton coach. Eight years on since that dark phase of his career, Munna has now been recently appointed as the head coach of the Mauritius national badminton team.

Munna's journey in badminton began in 2008 when national coach Shibbir Ahmed, who also hails from Sylhet's Baraikandi area as Munna, saw him playing badminton with a bunch of kids.

"I was just casually looking at the kids and realised that this one kid has exceptional talent. I called him, talked to him and then convinced his father to let me coach him," said Shibbir, who is also the head coach of Sylhet Badminton Academy.

Munna was just a ninth-grader back then. After years under Shibbir's tutelage, Munna got called up to the national team in 2013, secured third place in national junior championship and came second in Asian Junior Championship.

That year, he played Asian Junior and other international tournaments in India. He also joined a club in Narayanganj. In 2014, the national championship was organised in Sylhet and Munna was asked to join Sylhet district team leaving the Narayanganj club. He obliged.

But what could have been another step in the right direction for Munna, turned out to be something unforeseen.   It was then Shibbir and national coach Wahiduzzaman Razu, who inspired Munna to be a coach.

Munna migrated to Malaysia as a coach and over the years, he excelled in coaching.

During his five-year-long coaching career at the New Nation Badminton Academy in Malaysia, Munna served as the head coach for the Malaysia junior side and as an assistant to the head coach of the senior side.

In 2016, Munna toured Bangladesh with his Malaysia junior team to participate in a Junior International Tournament and won the championship and was runners-up in both men's singles and doubles events.

Last year, he again visited Bangladesh with his team for International Senior Citizen Championship and his players ended up runners-up in the women's doubles event.

"Badminton players of Mauritius used to spend six months training in Malaysia and I am acquainted with them for long. In the first quarter of 2020, I was offered to be their head coach but the Covid-19 pandemic postponed the process," Munna shared how he went on to become the head coach of Mauritius.

Even after what had happened, Munna, however, is still interested to coach Bangladesh in future. "I was never given value in Bangladesh, even after my Malaysian players won titles coming to Bangladesh. Still, I am interested to work for my country," he said.