BWF suspends tour till April 12
NEWDELHI:THE Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced late on Friday to suspend all BWF World Tour and other Bwf-sanctioned tournaments from March 16 until April 12.
“The escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak globally had led the BWF, in close consultation and consensus with its host member associations and continental confederations, to cancel or postpone all tournaments in this period due to heightened travel and quarantine restrictions in place and the subsequent extreme logistical complications caused to the movement of players” BWF said in a statement.
INDIA OPEN HIT
Tournaments affected include the Swiss Open, India Open, scheduled from March 24, Orléans Masters, Malaysia Open, and Singapore Open, as well as many international Grade 3 tournaments. The suspension of the circuit would come into effect following the completion of the All England Open on March 15.
The international badminton circuit has stuttered on amid severe travel restrictions and concerns raised by players. The All England Open began this week after days of uncertainty and seems to be the only high-profile sporting event in Great Britain that is being held right now.
The development comes after several top shuttlers on Friday asked BWF to “suspend the tour immediately” and not put the health of players at risk. The players, including Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, took to Twitter to voice concern.
The Delhi state government on Friday decided to ban all sporting events for a month. India Open, an Olympic qualifying event, was scheduled from March 24.
Denmark’s Hans-kristian Vittinghus tweeted on Saturday, “The ATP Tour is suspended for 6 weeks, the NBA season is on hold, football leagues in several countries are postponing their matches, ice hockey leagues all over Europe are closing down their season but the international badminton circuit keeps going?”
“I honestly don’t get it! We should not be travelling the world playing badminton,” he said.
“I don’t get it too,” tweeted Nehwal tagging the BWF.
“I agree with you (Vittinghus) and @bwfmedia should think about players safety,” said Srikanth.
World No 21 Jan O Jorgensen made his voice heard too. “All England going on today (with spectators), so is Swiss Open, India Open and Malaysia Open the following weeks. Well, it makes no sense..its ignorance at the highest level they keep the events going,” he said.
Parupalli Kashyap, who is at the All England, said the world body should “freeze the current ranking and decide on (Olympic) qualification on a later date.”
BWF on Friday said a number of the tournaments impacted as a result of the suspension fall within the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying period. The BWF would be making another announcement on regulations related to Olympic qualification points at a later date.