A letter... that won't make a difference

This is a letter addressed to LC Gupta, Secretary of Badminton Association of India. The letter has been sent by NC Sudhir, Secretary of the Karnataka association, before the BAI's Annual General Body meeting on Dec 8. I don't expect the AGM to be any different from its past versions. Officials who have been clinging to their posts for the last decade or two will continue; dissidents won't raise their voice; and Indian badminton will continue to be hounded. This letter is remarkable because it raised the issue of age-group violations. Several of India's so-called junior champions are really five or six years older than they claim they are; in fact, some have even submitted three or four different certificates. Andhra Pradesh's Sikki Reddy, a protege of national chief coach P Gopichand, is a proven culprit. She has already started representing the national team...
At a recent junior tournament in Dehra Dun, several coaches and parents protested the rampant age-group violations. Senior coach Roshan Lal Nahar staged a fast and forced the organisers to conduct tests. The tests proved that nearly 40 contestants were illegally participating. National coach Gopichand's home state Andhra has a terrible record -- around 37 violations were reported!
I don't expect this letter to make any difference because the senile LC Gupta will brush it off and the other officials will only be too happy to play along. Nevertheless, full credit to Sudhir and others in the KBA.

Shri L C Gupta
Hon Secretary
Badminton Association of India

Sir,

Sub: AGM Agenda

We are in receipt of your meeting notice. I will be attending the meeting on 5th December as informed and will be reaching Guwahati on the 4th Morning.

1. Calendar of events: As regard to planning the forthcoming tournament season, we are of the opinion that Badminton Association of India should have a vibrant domestic circuit. In the last one and a half years we have observed that after senior national championships in January there is no tournament scheduled for the next 11 months for seniors and then in December and January all tournaments are scheduled for seniors prior to the nationals. This sort of scheduling is very taxing for the players and in the process players tend to miss out on certain tournaments resulting in organizers losing face and sponsors backing off from supporting tournaments. As you agree, some top players get to play international tournaments, but many others need to play tournaments during the season and the best way for that is to have national ranking tournaments spread out during the calendar year. This will help the next line of players to come up and I have taken the expert opinion of Mr. Prakash Padukone and Mr. Vimal Kumar and they vouch for the above suggestion.

Last year we had requested to conduct a team championship event on the Sudirman Cup format for the top 8 states. In fact it was given the approval but no dates were allotted for this event. This event is very important considering our preparations and the format involved for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The top 8 state can field a maximum of 8 players / state which include 4 Men and 4 Women along with 2 officials. The state must ensure that players residing in the state alone can represent that state. This can generate tremendous media attention and interest among the states. The winning state team will be given Rs.1 Lakh as prize money and the runner-up Rs.50,000/- . The duration of the tournament will be 4 days. The boarding and lodging and 3 tier A/c travel charges will be borne by the host association of all the participating teams. We are prepared to do this event on a regular basis for the next 3 years.

To make Badminton Association of India’s calendar of events for the next season more vibrant, our association is prepared to conduct the following events during the months given below: -

Date Tournament Prize Money Category
1.June ’08 UBI All India Junior Ranking Tournament 3 Lakhs U-13, U-16,
U-19
2.July ’08 TATA Open Senior Tournament 5 Lakhs Men & Women
3.September ’08 Inter State (Sudirman Cup Format)
4.December ’08 TATA Open Senior Tournament 5 Lakhs Men & Women
5.January ’08 Canara Bank Senior Tournament 5 Lakhs Men & Women


We are also prepared to take up the Junior or Senior Nationals of 2008. We would appreciate if we are allotted the Senior National Championships.

2. OVERAGED PLAYERS:

We are very concerned about the recent happenings in Dehra Dun during the sub-junior national championships related to overaged players. We have clear evidence in the form of the certificates in our records of certain players with different age certificates submitted for junior tournaments over the years. The sad part is some of these players have gone on to win the national sub-junior titles in Dehra Dun. It is a shame that BAI has failed to initiate action against these players who have produced two to three different birth certificates. In fact our coach and manager complained that they were not given the result of the medical tests conducted on certain players in Dehra Dun.

We suggest that an independent medical board test all players who won the sub-junior national title in Dehra Dun in a very transparent manner immediately. The credibility of BAI is at stake here and the best punishment for the offenders can be barring them from playing in any age category events in future. BAI need not have to worry about the consequences and these norms can be incorporated in the BAI by laws. Catching a culprit when there is clear evidence will never go against the BAI. All that BAI need to show is some firmness in dealing with this problem and we are sure that all state units will stand firmly behind BAI in dealing with this age old problem.

We request BAI to take the above suggestions in the right spirit. Look forward to meeting you in Guwahati next week.

Yours sincerely,
Sudhir N C
Hon Secretary
Karnataka Badminton Association