GOPI FLOATS TOURNEYS AT SINGLE VENUE IDEA

New Delhi, May 11: India’s national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand wants BWF to come up with “radical” solutions to restart the sport smoothly in a post Covid-19 world, suggesting that conducting more tournaments at a single venue could be the way forward.

The Coronavirus outbreak forced the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to suspend all events, including the Olympic qualifiers, till end of July. The governing body has also postponed important events such as the Thomas and Uber Cup Final.

“BWF should talk to health people and revise the format itself, the tournament structure itself and do whatever is required. My view is if something radical needs to be done, then let’s do it and let’s go ahead with the sport,” Gopichand said.

“My concern is that, you are trying to shift the dates, probably there needs to be a change in thinking. If the same thing continues, and the whole entourage is travelling again to different countries then it is again risking players,” Gopichand added.

“I would say, planning of the tournaments has to be such that players can actually stay at one place and play more number of tournaments. It could be the next normal,” he said. —