BAI cracks whip, drops Chetan Anand, Jwala Gutta, Shruti Kurien

Mumbai, May 9 (UNI) The Badminton Association of India (BAI) today cracked the whip on national champion Chetan Anand and top women's pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien for their anti-Federation stance, dropping them from the team for the Sudirman Cup championship next month.

After more than a week of feud between the shuttlers and the establishment which created a furore, the BAI selection committee met here today decided to crack the whip on the trio for not attending the ongoing camp in Hyderabad and also for not showing up for the selection trials.

The BAI, in a release today, stated that ''they were invited to the national camp that commenced on April 24 and also an opportunity was given to them to participate in the trials in Hyderabad (May 6-8) but they failed to report.'' Without its top-ranked singles player and top women's doubles duo, India will field an under-strength side for the World Team championship in Glasgow, Scotland from June 10-17.

Promising youngster P Kashyap was given a chance in place of Anand, while Ashwini Ponappa and Nitya Sosale will replace Jwala and Shruti.

Other players in the 10-member team who were selected beforehand are Anup Sridhar, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas and V Diju in men's team, while Saina Nehwal, Aditi Mutatkar and Aparna Balan in women's team.

BAI said the rebel trio had earlier skipped the Asian Championship and the camp before the event.

''They were selected in the national team for the Asian Championship (April) but dropped out on their own. They failed to report for the two national camps in March and April and also failed to participate in the Asian Championship,'' BAI said in the release.

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