New Delhi: Badminton ace Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap after their withdrawal from the 79th Senior National Badminton Championships might be sued by the organizers for their absence.
The Andhra Pradesh Badminton Association (ABPA) has decided to take a firm stand on the issue. Apart from Saina and Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram also withdrew from the tournament.
ABPA Secretary, K Punnaiah Choudhary said that it is time the indifferent attitude of these players towards Nationals was dealt with.
"Senior Nationals is the premier tournament in the country. How can these players miss these events? We are witnessing this trend only now. Earlier, all the top players used to compete in the Nationals. Even Sachin Tendulkar used to play Ranji Trophy. We are not going to take this issue lightly. We will move court as BAI is also losing a lot," Choudhary said and asked why the government should honour these players with national awards.
"These players apply for top honours from the government but don't do their bit by giving back to the game when it is required. The presence of these players could have popularised the game in this part of the country.”
"Every year organisers of the Nationals are suffering because of their absence. Saina started this trend a few years back and others are following now. We'll request the court to direct the government to stop honouring these players."
Choudhary went on by saying that the players don't miss events like the Indian Badminton League (IBL) because it fetches them a lot of money but they produce medical certificates to miss events like nationals. “Some of them who had sent medical certificates are attending wedding receptions. Saina or PSPB did not even respond to our e-mails. This is callous," Choudhary said.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) made it compulsory for senior ranked players to participate in the Nationals. However, some of the athletes have just participated in the team event and not the singles. Choudhary said this in reference to P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth.
India's chief coach Pullela Gopichand agreed with the issue and said that it needs to be addressed seriously.
