Commonwealth, Asian Games trials on; Saina not happy with BAI selection policy

By Express News Service

CHENNAI:  It’s a massive year for most athletes and it’s no different for shuttlers from India. Commonwealth Games, Asian Games are some of the marquee events many dream of.

While there are a few months before those events commence, the process to pick a team for those marquee events is set to begin on Friday with the Badminton Association of India (BAI) gearing up to conduct national selection trails from Friday.

A team for Thomas & Uber Cup will also be ascertained during the trials. The governing body’s decision to conduct the trials has not gone down well with Saina Nehwal.

Saina, a former World No 1, questioned the timing of the trials on a social media on Thursday.

“Surprised to see all the articles stating that I don’t want to defend my CWG title and my Asiad medal. I’m just not participating in the trials because I just got back from 3 weeks of Europe events and according to the schedule there’s Asian Championships,” Saina posted on Twitter.

As per BAI selection policy, it is mandatory for Saina, who’s World No 23, to take part in order to have any chance of selection.

She has taken part in four tournaments this year and has had ill luck when it comes to injuries over the years. The BAI had already said that players in top 15 would be selected.

“The players ranked top-15 in the world have been selected directly as announced earlier,”Sanjay Mishra, general secretary of BAI was quoted saying in a release. 

Saina added, “In 2 weeks time, as a senior player to participate in back-to-back events nonstop is impossible and it’s risking injuries, such short notice is not possible. I’ve conveyed this to BAI but there has been no response from them. It seems like they’re happy to put me out of CWG and Asiad.”

BAI had made official announcement to conduct the trials on April 2. A total of 120 players will be part of the trials which will go on until April 20. The fact that BAI will also be selecting core group probable players for the 2024 Olympics makes it more important.

“We want to give each and every player enough chances to prove their abilities and this is the best possible format that BAI and the selection committee together came up with,” Mishra said.  

Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy (based on his form) and PV Sindhu alongside men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been named as automatic selection.

“Prannoy’s name has also been included as all the selectors were of the unanimous view that he should be considered for direct selection as he has performed consistently at top events in the recent time and has beaten some top players,” Mishra said in the release.