With national men’s champion Chetan Anand and national women’s doubles champions Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien not turning up for the open trials in progress at Hyderabad, it seems the trio will not be travelling to Scotland for the June 10-17 Sudirman Cup. The Badminton Association of India (BAI) had clearly stated that participating in the open trials was the only way the trio could make it to the Scotland event.

Asked if the federation would take any action against the shuttlers, BAI president told The Indian Express: “The trials are on till Monday. We’ll take a decision after that.” But Jwala told this paper that the trio will not be appearing for the trials.

“We haven’t got a proper letter for the trials. The letters weren’t even addressed to me. And why is the BAI questioning only Chetan and me? There are players from Bangalore and Maharashtra who haven’t turned up for the trials,” accuses a livid Jwala.

But wouldn’t they lose out on participating in such a prestigious event? “When the team for the Sudirman Cup had been selected last month, why talk of conducting trials now? This is a grave injustice to us. I’m waiting for the sports ministry to react. As players we have every right to play tournaments and if they think I’m wrong, I’m ready to quit badminton. It’s an individual sport and if I don’t think about my career, who will?” fumes Jwala.

The shuttler came down heavily on chief national coach Pullela Gopichand saying: “Gopi should know how important these tournaments are. As a player he also skipped camps and played tournaments. And if our performance on the European circuit is the reason why we should be training in the camp and miss the two Super Series in Singapore and Indonesia, I want to remind them that it is no shame losing to the No 2 or No 3 player in the first round when only the top 32 in the world take part in the Super Series now. Gopi also feels players should not play continuously on the tour. As the national coach, he shouldn’t be making such irresponsible statements.”

... contd.