Bhubaneswar, Jun 8 (PTI) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday felicitated the coach and the members of Indian men's badminton team that recently clinched the coveted Thomas Cup.

Coach Pullela Gopichand was honoured with a shawl and a memento at the function, organised at Lok Seva Bhawan here.

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All players -- Kidambi Srikanth, Dhruv Kapila, Pronoy HS, Priyanshu Rajawat, Vishnuvardhan Goud, GK Prasad, Arjun MR, Chirag Chandra Sekhar Shetty and Rakkireddy Satwik Sairaj – were handed over Rs 10 lakh cash award each, along with a shawl and a memento.

The players presented the CM a Team India Jersey with their autographs on it.

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"It is the dawn of a new era... an era of India's domination in badminton. A decade ago, this was unthinkable. Across the country, there is great interest for the sport among kids and parents. India has now become a production centre for world champions in badminton,” Patnaik stated.

He thanked Gopichand, the Badminton Association of India, the Centre as well as the state governments for the support they rendered to the players.

Speaking on his government's efforts in promoting badminton, he said that a "state-of-the-art high performance facility will be launched in the state in a few months, in partnership with Gopichand".

"We are constructing 89 multi-purpose indoor halls across the state. These will primarily be devoted to badminton promotion. Many champions will emerge from Odisha in the coming years," Patnaik, who is known to be a sports enthusiast, explained.

The state would also like to host Odisha Open as an annual event and support more international badminton championships, he added.

Gopichand, on his part, pointed out that Odisha is the only state that not just hails sporting achievements of locals, but promotes all sportspersons of the country.

“Odisha is one of the pioneers in sports promotion. Thank you for this big support, Odisha,” he added.

India defeated four-time champion Indonesia to win the Thomas Cup for the first time, earlier this year.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)