ISLAMABAD, April 3 The newly-appointed national badminton coach Raziuddin Ahmed has claimed to bring swift improvement to the sport by working on the tactical, technical and physical fitness of the top ranking players.

The foreign-qualified Razi has recently been appointed head coach of Pakistan`s badminton squad for the 11th South Asian Games to be held at Dhaka, Bangladesh, next year.

Speaking to Dawn on Friday, he said “I will select only top-ranking junior and senior players from upcoming national badminton competitions.”

The Top-16 Invitational Badminton Tournament is slated to be held in Islamabad while the All Pakistan Ranking Tournament will be held in Sialkot in April.

According to the coach, the current top players lacked much in the area of physical fitness.

“The players would have to go through strenuous training sessions as well as pass multi-stage fitness tests in order to be a part of the national squad for the SAF Games,” he added.

He said that the national squad would start training at the Pakistan Sports Complex from May.