Bangkok, (Asian independent) Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal on Tuesday lashed out at the Badminton World Federation for the regulations that were in place ahead of the upcoming Thailand tournaments. The Thailand Open, which starts on January 12 in Bangkok is set to be the first tournament she plays since the All England Open in March last year.
Saina’s grievances was chiefly about players allegedly not being allowed to interact with their physios and trainers and the reduced practice and gym timings allowed.
“The physios and trainers cannot meet us during the entire tour after all of us have tested negative ? @bwfmedia @bwf_ac 4 weeks of this… how is it possible to maintain ourselves. We want to play the tournament in good condition. Please sort this @bwfmedia,” said Saina in her first tweet.
“Practice only for an hour everyday for the entire team? Gym timings the same… considering March being the important Olympic qualification period this is not good enough to be in good shape @bwfmedia,” she said in her second post.
Saina said that players should have been informed earlier if they are not allowed to interact with their support staff for the duration of their stay in Thailand.
Singles foreign coaches Agus Dwi Santoso and Park Tae Sang and doubles coach Dwi Kristiawan along with support staff consisting of Kiran Challagundla, Johnson, Evangelina Baddam and M. Srikanth have travelled to Bangkok with the players.
“No Time for warm ups/taping/cool downs/stretches… we are talking about the best players in the world competing isn’t it? We’ve spent a lot of money getting the physios and trainers along with us. If they can’t help us then why was this not told before ? @bwfmedia,” she said.
“Tried contacting @bwfmedia but no reply.. so had to do this..” she said in her last tweet.
The first Thailand Open will be held from January 12 to 17 while the second is scheduled for January 19 to 24. The BWF World Tour Finals then starts on January 27 and will end on January 31.
Apart from Saina, the Indian squad in Bangkok for the tournaments includes badminton world champion PV Sindhu and Olympic hopefuls Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth.
The team also consists of star men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and doubles players Ashwini Ponappa and N. Sikki Reddy.
H.S. Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap, Sameer Verma, Dhruv Kapila, and Manu Attri are the rest of the players in the team.
