Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/othe...ampionships/story-GOUmbZAF0bMnF1MegQNfRJ.html All England Championships: Top shuttlers pull out, vacate Gopichand academy Two positive cases were reported from Madhapur and Gachibowli on Wednesday, which have sparked fear among players. Two academies of Pullela Gopichand are situated in Gachibowli. Updated: Mar 05, 2020 23:08 IST By Avishek Roy, Hindustan Times New Delhi Seven Indian players, including the doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, have pulled out of the upcoming All England Open in Birmingham (March 11-15) due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. They have also decided not to train at Pullela Gopichand’s academy in Gachibowli, Hyderabad and are headed home after cases were reported in the vicinity. Two positive cases were reported from Madhapur and Gachibowli on Wednesday, which have sparked fear among players. Two academies of Pullela Gopichand are situated in Gachibowli. HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma, Sourabh Verma, and doubles players Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy, have also withdrawn from the All England, a Super 1000 event. “Those who are still confirmed to compete are PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, Ashwini Ponnappa, Sikki Reddy and Pranav Jerry Chopra,” said Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary-general Ajay Singhania. There were doubts regarding the All England Open—the most prestigious event in world badminton’s annual calendar—after the cancellation of the German Open in Mülheim an der Ruhr from March 3-8. With the Olympic qualification period ending on April 29, every tournament is important for the top players. The Badminton World Federation (BWF), however, said on Wednesday that hosts Badminton England confirmed the All England Open will go ahead as scheduled. The Indian team is scheduled to leave on Sunday and there could be more withdrawals in the coming days. “It is completely on the players to take a call whether they want to go, considering that the situation worldwide is bad,” said Singhania. Parents of many players were concerned. The doubles players had a meeting with their Indonesian coach Flandy Limpele on Thursday morning where it was left to them to decide. Saina and Srikanth are still in with a chance to qualify for the Olympics and, therefore, chose to compete. Saina is lying at 22 place while Srikanth is 21st in Race to Tokyo rankings. A few good finishes might see them enter the top-16 and make the cut. “No one wants to get infected. We have to travel to England and we don’t know what will happen when we come back if we have cough or cold which is normal when you travel to Europe. What if we are put in isolation for two weeks,” Parupalli Kashyap told Hindustan Times. “There is a lot of confusion. We don’t know whether the Swiss Open (March 17-22) is happening, we don’t know whether we can travel to Malaysia (March 31-April 5) and Singapore (April 7-12). We don’t know whether the India Open (March 24-29) will happen? How can you prepare in this situation,” he said. Shetty wanted to compete but Rankireddy made up his mind to pull out. The two are currently ranked eighth in qualification stage and are safely through. “Our parents are very scared and they told us no need to take the risk. We are ninety per cent in the qualification, so I thought it is better to pull out,” Rankireddy said. “We discussed the matter with Flandy Limpele (doubles coach) and he said it is up to you. It is about your health. The main problem is travel. We would have gone through Dubai and there are cases everywhere, airports are crowded. “People above 50 are more at risk. We are not at risk but if we pass it on to our parents and relatives, it will be dangerous.” The players informed Gopichand’s mother Subbaravamma, who runs the academy, their decision to leave. “Conronavirus cases have come up nearby... hardly 2km from the academy and everyone is scared. We heard that IT offices are being sanitised and some offices have asked employees to work from home. Since the report came out yesterday, even some of the roads look empty,” said Satwik. He said the junior players of the academy are also leaving. “There are players from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and they are leaving. Gopi sir’s mother said it is better to go home and come back after a week if the situation improves. Everyone stays close by in the academy and it’s not worth taking the risk.” Rankireddy will go to his hometown Amalapuram while Shetty will be back in Mumbai. They will assess the situation in a week’s time and if it does not improve, Rankireddy will travel to Mumbai and train with his partner. Prannoy said he had dengue six months back and his immune system was still not good.“For those who are close to qualification, it is worth taking the risk. My immune system sure is not 100 per cent after the dengue attack,” said Prannoy. Gopichand and national selector Vimal Kumar will be travelling with the team as coaches, confirmed BAI. However a player on condition of anonymity said even Gopichand has decided not to travel. Gopichand was not available for comment. Kashyap said BWF’s refusal to extend the qualification period is unfair on players like Saina and Srikanth who are on the fringes. He said the qualification calendar was not spaced out well and there were months with only one top event and then there would be 3-4 weeks of big events clubbed together, making it difficult for the players. “It’s unfair to players who have a chance and Saina is very close. I don’t understand the attitude of BWF saying its good news that the tournament is happening. We all are scared here. I am asthmatic and I am worried but I have to travel because of Saina,” he said. He said the events have left Saina distressed as she was just coming back to top fitness. “In the last six months, she hardly got to train. She was continuously injured for something or the other. For the last 3 -4 weeks she has trained well, but now we don’t know whether we get to play the remaining tournaments.”
This Corono virus is torturing everybody. Its heavy risk for players. But unfortunately, this comes in Olympics qualification period.
Link: https://www.badzine.net/2020/03/door-to-india-open-closed-for-3-top-teams/ Excerpts : The Indian government’s decision to suspend visas for nationals of Korea and Japan could cull nearly half of the seeded players from the field for the upcoming India Open. A report today from Korea’s Yonhap News Agency confirmed that the Korean national badminton team contingent for the upcoming India Open had all had their visas suspended by the Government of India, amid fears related to the outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus. According to details on the Government of India website, the visa suspension also applies to Japanese nationals, while travellers from China had already been blocked from entering India for much longer. For many of the Korean players, participating in the India Open is somewhat crucial for their future plans. The Koreans cannot return home after the Swiss Open without disqualifying themselves from the Singapore Open as well.
Interesting. That means mainly Indian players in the India open and a huge chance to gain ranking points for Olympic qualification.............. Food for thought Incidentally, I also noticed at the German Junior tournament, most Indian players had withdrawn. Some other countries players had also withdrawn. It's likely the parents had withdrawn consent for their children to play due to the risk of the virus.
if the gov't of india is doing what you think they might be doing i would say 'well at least i know their gov't is supporting badminton on some level...', heh heh.
Definitely govt doesn't want to trade country's "poor but humble, innocent and nascent dude" image for mere badminton. That image is too big a thing to trade for Indian government because they have sacrificed a lot of important things like logic, sensibility and aggressive development(and defence) to earn that pseudo "Good boy" tag/image.
They will try to allow China players even though the relationship with China is amicable.they will allow all players if they have no covid
Link: https://360badminton.com/news/indian-doubles-coach-flandy-limpele-resigns/ Indian doubles coach Flandy Limpele resigns The Indonesian had reportedly flown back home on 7 March. According to Outlook India, Flandy said, “I feel doubles department is not as favourite as singles. It is unfortunate that it has less love than singles but having said that it is just one of the reasons. The main reason for my departure is personal.”
Satwik Sairaj, Chirag Shetty, Manu Attri, Sumeet shetty, Sourabh verma , Sameer verma and H.S.Prannoy withdrew from All England. Total of 7 indian players withdrew. WTH
Many players left Gopi's academy to stay with their parents. Maybe Flandy was left alone in the academy and he might have come to this decision because of this. Or i don't know.
It was already at the back of his mind. Satwik/Chirag pulling out of All England may have tipped the balance in this direction. He is not happy with the attitude of Indian doubles players. Coronavirus could just be an additional reason to return home.
I have serious doubts on commitment of this satwik dude, this dude rested for most of last year due to injury, again injured in this year PBL and took rest, and pulled out of AE (more rest).
