Hyderabad Open badminton nixed
New Delhi, June 4: The Hyderabad Open badminton tournament, scheduled to be held in August, was on Thursday cancelled by the sport’s world governing body in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, days after the unveiling of a revised calendar.
The tournament, set from August 11 to 16, was one of the three to be held in India in the calendar announced by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on May 22 to restart the sport after the pandemic-forced cancellations since March.
“BWF and Badminton Association of India have agreed to cancel the Hyderabad Open 2020 (1116 August) — a Super 100 on the BWF Tour,” the BWF said in a statement.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said circumstances have and will continue to change in certain countries and therefore further updates on the status of tournaments will be given as and when necessary. “These changes announced today are necessary but do not directly impact the new BWF Tournament Calendar 2020, which was created to allow for changes as part of our framework for badminton’s potential return,” he said.
“Health, safety and movement restrictions are now quite varied across the globe as certain countries and territories slowly return to a new normal.
Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand admitted that it would have been too difficult to commit to a tournament in August as Hyderabad is still under lockdown.
“At the moment the lockdown is still on in Hyderabad and the Telangana government has still not decided when the sports infrastructure will open even though the central government has cleared it. We are just waiting for the information,” Gopichand said.
“...it will be too difficult for us to commit for a tournament in August,” he added.
PONNAPPA, LAKSHYA RESUME TRAINING
Top shuttlers Ashwini Ponnappa and Lakshya Sen are among 20-odd Indian players who have started training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru as the sport took its first step towards resumption.
“Some top national players have been training for last two weeks here. We have 16 courts spread out and about 20 India players practising here,” Vimal Kumar said.