Uneven courts delay play, Saina, others made to wait
Newdelhi: organisers of the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships scrambled to control damage on Thursday after Saina Nehwal and two other top male players refused to play on a ‘poor surface’ at Guwahati’s Assam Badminton Academy.
Parupalli Kashyap, a former champion and Saina’s husband, and Sai Praneeth also refused to play after discovering the poor condition of the court when they came to play. They pointed out wooden planks on which the synthetic courts are laid were uneven and could lead to injury.
The disruption came as an embarrassment on the home turf of Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Himanta Biswa Sarma, a cabinet minister in Assam. The incident will lead to fresh scrutiny of sporting infrastructure in the country, especially in badminton where India boasts of many world class players.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina, the defending champion, and Kashyap, played and completed their matches late on Thursday night after the organisers laid fresh wooden planks to provide an ideal playing surface. “We basically put together a new court. The wood inflated after Sindhu’s match so we had to postpone all matches on that court to the evening. We put a new court together in six hours. Saina played on it and won too,” BAI secretary (events) Omar Rashid said by phone from Guwahati.
The problem cropped up after PV Sindhu won her first round to enter the quarterfinals. Saina, who suffered a shin injury late last year, refused to play after having watched Sameer Verma concede his match due to an Achilles problem. Facing qualifier Shruti Mundada, Saina took a look at the surface and immediately said she won’t risk playing given that the All England Open starts on March 6.
Although Praneeth completed his match on an adjacent court, Saina and Kashyap, the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion, chose to wait for the repair work to be done.
“The wooden planks came out at a couple of places after Sindhu played. They are now going to fix it. We’ll come back in the evening to play our pre-quarterfinals,” Kashyap told PTI. Matches did not take place in afternoon, leaving a question mark over the future rounds, until the late resumption.
Rashid said BAI will also make arrangements in the cement courts at the Tarun Ram Phookan indoor stadium. “The surface became uneven at a couple of places, so three players have refused to play. We will fix the problem here and also make arrangements in the indoor stadium. It is up to them where they want to play,” he said earlier.
Badminton activities have picked up in Assam since Sarma became the BAI chief last April. The state also has a Premier Badminton League (PBL) team, North Eastern Warriors, with Saina as the lead player.