How good is our National Badminton team? The last match I saw was Chetan Anand, India's No:1 being beaten in the quarter final stage of a tourney by Peter Gade (then World No:3). I was happy then to see the pluck in Chetan and wished for him to do very good for himself and India. Almost a year has passed by and I don't remember seeing many news let alone good news about Indian Badminton.
Then about a month or so back, I happen to hear about the tiff between some of the top Indian shuttlers and BAI (Badminton Association of India). The BAI wanted all players to attend a "elite" training camp for 6 months and attend only those tourneys that are decided by it. This kind of camp would definitely help the younger crop of players and players on the fringe of national team selection. But the folks who are already on the team and doing ok for themselves surely didn't want to miss out on the pay packages of playing in tourneys abroad by attending this camp (which will probably not do them much good). The BAI in turn stopped these players from being considered for selection for these tourneys. Definitely can't blame the players for throwing the towel in and the dictatorial behavior of BAI had to be opposed. The opposition was spearheaded by none other than Chetan Anand and his wife Jwala Gutta along with her doubles partner, Shruthi Kurien. This has been going on for a while with each party taking a media salvo at each other every now and then.
This being said, today I hear the news that BAI has finally loosened its stance and is now going to given permission to the top players to not attend the camp and go ahead for tourneys. This sure is a sweet victory and instead of getting back to their cause (i.e. badminton) ASAP, our rebelling shuttlers had to have the last word. While talking to the media, Chetan claims that BAI must compensate them for the tourneys they missed. While Jwala goes total filmy and says their careers have been "irreparably damaged". You don't play for 6 months in big money tourneys and your career has been damaged? In the same vein, a capable software professional working in a company with pittance salary has also damaged his career! Shuttle Rebels, get back on court and prove your point! "Resurrect" your careers...
Sports professional minus cricketers in India and media starved and nobody wants to lose any airtime....
Then about a month or so back, I happen to hear about the tiff between some of the top Indian shuttlers and BAI (Badminton Association of India). The BAI wanted all players to attend a "elite" training camp for 6 months and attend only those tourneys that are decided by it. This kind of camp would definitely help the younger crop of players and players on the fringe of national team selection. But the folks who are already on the team and doing ok for themselves surely didn't want to miss out on the pay packages of playing in tourneys abroad by attending this camp (which will probably not do them much good). The BAI in turn stopped these players from being considered for selection for these tourneys. Definitely can't blame the players for throwing the towel in and the dictatorial behavior of BAI had to be opposed. The opposition was spearheaded by none other than Chetan Anand and his wife Jwala Gutta along with her doubles partner, Shruthi Kurien. This has been going on for a while with each party taking a media salvo at each other every now and then.
This being said, today I hear the news that BAI has finally loosened its stance and is now going to given permission to the top players to not attend the camp and go ahead for tourneys. This sure is a sweet victory and instead of getting back to their cause (i.e. badminton) ASAP, our rebelling shuttlers had to have the last word. While talking to the media, Chetan claims that BAI must compensate them for the tourneys they missed. While Jwala goes total filmy and says their careers have been "irreparably damaged". You don't play for 6 months in big money tourneys and your career has been damaged? In the same vein, a capable software professional working in a company with pittance salary has also damaged his career! Shuttle Rebels, get back on court and prove your point! "Resurrect" your careers...
Sports professional minus cricketers in India and media starved and nobody wants to lose any airtime....
2 comments:
Good take on the issue.
hope the players leave their high ground and get on with the sport.
Better to see some results than the first rounds and prove their point.
This seems to be their way of getting in the media
Thanks Srini... With Indian sports, its always hoping against hope. :-)
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