BAI in need of some fine tuning

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, MAY 8. The triumph of P. Gopi Chand in the All England championship was the silver lining on the Indian badminton firmament. But in spite of that, the affairs of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) still remains murky as ever. The selection of the Indian team for the Sudirman Cup and World championship, scheduled to be held in Seville, Spain from May 28, is an example of muddled thinking that still seems to prevail at the top.

In the last week of April, BAI named 19 probables for the coaching camp at Bangalore and within days of that announcement, Mr. L.C. Gupta, secretary, BAI came out with the team list, thus dampening the spirits of the players not in the main list.

Why the hurry one might be tempted to ask, except for the reason that BAI had to send the list early. But then again, the idea of calling all the players in the original list also seems to have served no purpose.

The coach, Mr. S.M. Arif, however, defended the decision. ``Just because some players are not in the main list, we should not ignore other probables. For example, Aparna Popat's decision not to play in the tournaments created an opening for B.R. Meenakshi, who was in the reserve, to be in the main team. One cannot rule out anything till the team leaves,'' he said.

The fact that Meenakshi found a place in the women's squad however, opened a Pandora's box, with local girl, Divya Ramesh going to court for non-inclusion in the main team. One has to consider Divya's decision in the right perspective. She claims that ``injustice'' was done to her ``given her form and performance''.

A dispassionate look at her record for the two seasons shows that it is in no way better than Meenakshi's. Moreover, Meenakshi is no longer on the injured list as claimed by Divya's lawyer. She has recovered from the injury sustained three months ago and is now regularly attending the camp.

What is sad about the whole affair is Divya's penchant for seeking legal recourse every time she perceives that she has been given a raw deal by the BAI.

It happened after the Junior Nationals in Chennai a couple of years ago over the over-age issue. Such an approach neither helps the game nor the player. Her decision to include someone like Prakash Padukone as one of the respondent, is also perplexing. In no way is Prakash involved with BAI's selection policies.

``May be it is because I am in a way connected with badminton,'' said Prakash, the most famous name in the game in the country.

The other BAI secretary, Mr. S.S. Mani, also dismissed Divya's claims.``There are lot of factors like ranking, form and fitness which have to be taken into consideration while naming the team. We will file our reply,'' said Mr. Mani.

Mr. Arif, without commenting on Divya's decision, observed: ``She was asked to report at the camp, but she did not turn up and next thing we know, through media reports, is that she is suing the BAI''.

Though Divya's writ might be a pin prick for BAI, it is doubtful whether it will alter the selection and in fact the suit could prove to be counter productive for the player.

But then there is a lesson here for the BAI as well. The national body has to come out with a clear policy on selections and the mode of naming the teams for international events. A slipshod approach is bound to result in such unpleasantness. When one has the international calendar, it is not hard to prepare in advance and chose the best team.

A week ago, the BAI chose not to send a team for the Asia Cup because Gopi Chand and Abhinn Shyam Gupta were not available and the sponsors in Singapore were not too keen to have a depleted Indian team in the fray. But the BAI could have convinced them and a younger team could have been fielded. It would have been good exposure and, who knows, the team might have done well too.

Thailand, which was India's replacement at the championship, stunned champion China in one of the preliminary league ties.

There is something called long term development plan which seems to be overlooked by the BAI top brass ever since the departure of Prakash from the scene. It is time they woke up and addressed such real issues facing the game.

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