Players slam BWF for new schedule

New Delhi, May 22: Indian shuttlers, including Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal, on Friday questioned the rationale behind scheduling 22 event in just five months in a revised BWF calender, saying the “stupid” planning will increase the injury risk.

The Badminton World Federastion (BWF) unveiled a revised international calendar to salvage the remainder of the season, disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Twenty two events in five months is extremely tough on the players. Firstly, there is a question mark on international guidelines and how quarantine will happen. Don’t know how they came up with this when the travel restrictions are still in place. We all want to get back to sport but there are lot of question marks now, we haven’t yet started practice yet,” Kashyap said.

Saina took to Twitter to express her doubts. “22 tournaments in 5 months from August to December 2020...5 months non stop travel ... biggest question is what are the international guidelines of travelling during this #coronavirus pandemic??,” she tweeted.

Praneeth, who is frontrunner in qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, was equally unimpressed. “It is stupid to expect players to play 22 tournaments in five months. They are not thinking about players. BWF president is an Olympic champion, so they should have thought how can players play week after week,” Praneeth said.

Meanwhile, Chirag Shetty said, “I was taken by surprise that there are 22 tournaments in five months. All of them are the ones we usually play. From September till December not a single week left out. Even last year we played 17-18.”

“We have to play every week. It is stupid. They should have given some break,” he said.