Saina Nehwal announced her arrival on the world badminton scene when she beat the then world champion, Zhu Lin of China, in the quarterfinal of the China Masters Super Series last year.

At this year’s edition of the tournament, to be played at Changzhou, China, from September 15-20, Saina could have consolidated her position and added to her ranking points.

But she can’t — because Indian badminton officials forgot to e-mail her entry to the organisers on time. The last date was August 11, the Badminton Association of India woke up the day after.

So Saina — and other Indian shuttlers like top men’s singles player Chetan Anand and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju — will probably sit at home while the world’s best battle it out in the championship.

“I’m very disappointed, because skipping this event will affect my rankings adversely,” said Saina, who dropped down to number 7 in world rankings after the world championships. She had made the semis of the 2008 Super Series and would have been defending a considerable number of ranking points.

Other than Saina, the rest of the world’s top 10 have been named in the draw, which was announced Thursday.

“I guess everyone was busy with the world championships, so we didn’t realise that we’d missed the last date. Later, we came to know that our entries had been rejected,” said the 19-year-old star.

Asked for a comment, BAI president VK Verma appeared surprised, and said the Indian entries had been sent and “no such thing” (rejection) had occurred. “Maybe the players didn’t want to play China Masters,” he said, but added that he would check on the matter.

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