Indian shuttler HS Prannoy on Tuesday slammed the Badminton Association of India (BAI) following their announcement for Arjuna award nominees. Ace doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and singles star Sameer Verma have been recommended by BAI for the Arjuna Award.
"The architect of the success stories of Indian badminton has been our coaches of whom renowned National Institute of Sports (NIS)-certified coaches, S. Murlidharan and Bhaskar Babu have been selected for the Dronacharya Award. Both have tirelessly put in efforts to shape champions," said BAI.
Prannoy questioned the selection criteria for Arjuna Award while criticising the selection of Sameer.
"#arjunaawards Same old story. Guy who has Medals in Cwg and Asian Championships not even recommended by Association. And guy who was not there on any of these major events recommended #waah #thiscountryisajoke," he tweeted.
Prannoy had won a gold in the Mixed Team event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast and won a bronze in the singles category at the Asian Championships in Wuhan. His latest medal came this year at the 2020 Asai Team Championships in Manila where he won the bronze.
Meanwhile, Sameer won three titles and ascended to a career-high No. 11 in the world in 2018. His series of good performances earned him a place among the best-eight at the BWF World Tour Finals 2018, where he progressed to the semi-finals on debut.
Prannoy was even snubbed last year after which he had lashed out at the organisation saying “If you ever want your name in the Awards list, make sure you have people who will get your name to the list. Performance is least considered in our country. Sad state of our county but can’t help it. Let go and just play until you can.”
