Sports Ministry approaches Malaysian govt to allow Indian shuttlers to travel for Malaysian Open

Malaysian Open is one of the last events that contribute to Olympic qualification which ends on June 15. All top Indian singles and doubles players are due to participate in this.

New Delhi: The Sports Ministry, through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), has approached the Malaysian government requesting for permission to the Indian Badminton team to travel to participate in the Malaysian Open scheduled from May 25 to May 30.

This is in light of a temporary travel ban that has been imposed by Malaysia on travellers from India, owing to the rising COVID-19 cases in India.

"After the initial request made earlier this week, the Indian High Commission in Malaysia has received information from the Malaysian Government that the travel of the team may not be possible immediately. However, with 19 days left for the competition to begin, the possibility of travel cannot be ruled out completely," an update statement from Sports Authority of India (SAI) said.

The tournament is one of the last events that contribute to Olympic qualification which ends on June 15. All top Indian singles and doubles players like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy are due to participate in this.

Last month, India Open 2021 was postponed due to the upsurge in coronavirus cases in the national capital. India Open is classified as BWF World Tour Super 500 event and was one of the last few qualification events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The tournament was to be conducted behind closed doors at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi from May 11-16.