NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
ARCHIVES

Lack of sponsors kills badminton tourney

The Indian Open badminton tournament, a four-star event scheduled to be held in Bangalore from October 28 to November 4, has been cancelled.

The reason? A lack of sponsors, say sources within the Badminton Association of India.

Karen Koh, executive secretary of the Asian Badminton Confederation, however says the tournament was cancelled as its dates coincided with the national tournaments of most participating countries.

BAI officials however insist that sponsorship -- or the lack thereof -- is the main reason for the cancellation. An estimated Rs 30 million would be needed to conduct the tournament, and that kind of money is just not forthcoming, they say, especially in a recession year.

Interestingly, the BAI did not inform the Asian body of its lack of funding, and for a very good reason. Had the BAI cancelled the event on its own, it would have been fined 10 per cent of the total prize money.

A deal, thus, was struck with ABC secretary general Datuk Punch Gunalan, whereby the reason for cancellation would be, not lack of funds, but clashing dates.

Meanwhile, the BAI announced that a 35-strong team would take part in the Asian satellite international prize money badminton tournament, to be held at the Nehru Stadium from July 13 to 17.

The team will comprise 18 men and 17 women players.

Rising star Gopichand, still recovering from an injury, will not however participate, though he is expected to turn out for the BPL All-India Open from July 19.

The Asian satellite tournament will, says BAI executive president Prakash Padukone, help the lesser ranked Indian players earn valuable ratings points.

Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanamar, Seychelles, Malaysia and Maldives are the nations that have thus far confirmed their participation in the event.

India's teams:

Men: Abhin Shyam Gupta, Nikhil Kanetkar, Vincent Lobo, George Thomas, Marcose Bristo, Rajiv Bagga, Vinod Kumar, Harish Chandra, Chetan Anand, Mithesh Hazarnish, Srikanth Bakshi, Ajit Wijetilak, Sachi Ratti, Parag Modi, Sushant Saxena, D. Dhillon, Jaseel P. Ismail, and Arup Baidya.

Women: Aparna Popat, Manjusha Kanwar, Madhumita Bisht, P.V.V. Lakshmi, Archana Deodhar, Pooja Parikh, Feroza Batliwala, Divya Ramesh, Ketki Thakar, Kranti Sane, Parul Priyadarshini, Deepti, Neelima Choudhury, Samprada Shettye, Nirmala Kotnis, D. Swetha and Simsim Salaria.

Agencies