Hyderabad: India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand has come in support of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) to postpone the domestic tournaments explaining that it was not possible to conduct the "events safely".
With the spike in number of coronavirus cases touching one lakh on Monday, the BAI decided to postpone the tournaments scheduled for April and May.
When Etv Bharat enquired if the shift will affect the game of the shuttlers across the country, Gopichand said, "As the number of cases are going up across the country, I think it's really good that the BAI has taken this decision to postpone the tournaments for the moment. With the kind of entries we were having, I don't think it was possible to do a safe event for the players and the administrative staff. I think it's a good decision. As times improve, hopefully we can start off again."
Read: BAI postpones domestic tournaments due to rising Covid cases
The Association, keeping in mind the prevailing scenario in the country that has witnessed an exponential rise of case count (one lakh), surpassing the previous highest daily rise of 97,894 cases, also advised to postpone all the events including the senior ranking tournament in Bengaluru starting from April 18.
Moreover, the junior and sub-junior tournaments, slated to be held in May in Hyderabad among other venues have also been postponed.
The BAI secretary Ajay Kumar conceded that the current situation required them to take preventative measures to protect the players and technical officials.
"In view of the present pandemic situation, considering the health safety of the players, technical officials, the BAI President has advised to postpone the All India Ranking tournaments till further orders," Singhania wrote in his letter.
Although, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is still going as scheduled despite multiple players and staff members testing positive for coronavirus. But the national coach believes that a tournament of IPL's stature is easier to conduct than an individual tournament as it is easier to enforce the bubble.
Read: Russian Open, Indonesia Masters called off due to Covid
When asked about the cancellation of the senior ranking tournament, the coach said, "I think to have big events with higher prize money and top players in lesser numbers, it would probably be easier in conducting mass events. I think to conduct the super series is still possible because you are able to enforce the bubble but with entries of over 2000 coming in a tournament of a national level, it would be impossible for us to create a bubble or the necessary checks that are required to conduct such events safely."
He went on to add: "I think sporting tournaments of the highest level are happening. It's easier to do these tournaments because you can enforce the bubble much more and IPL is also a similar scenario. When you are able to isolate and get people into a bubble, it's easier rather than having individual tournaments where people come from various states, stay in different hotels and travel with different modes of transport to come and participate and be safe."
-- By Ayushmaan Pandey
