Shuttlers have 25 more tourneys to qualify for Olympics: Coach

Hyderabad, May 3 (UNI) National chief coach and former All England Badminton Champion Pullela Gopichand today said that top shuttlers of the country still have 25 more tournaments to qualify for the Olympics and they were not deprived of taking part in international events.

Speaking to UNI, he said our top shuttlers' performance in the recent European circuit was not upto the mark, BAI had decided to make national camp mandatory for everyone, failing which the players would not be considered for future tournaments.

Though he refused to comment on Players Welfare Association Secretary Vimal Kumar's criticism, he said, ''as a national coach I have to supervise the camp and take care of the needs of players. It is BAI which has to take action on those who are keeping away from the camp''.

''At present at least 20 to 25 tournaments are left in the calendar, of which ten are Super Series tournaments and another ten are Grand Prix tournaments, besides World Championship and several Asian Satellite events'' he explained.

He also defended the national camp for countries top shuttlers being held at Gachibowli indoor stadium. ''The break will only help the players to assess their game, gain fitness and correct themselves keeping in view important tournaments like Sudhirman Cup''.

But the 25th ranked doubles player Gutta Jwala was not buying the national coach's opinion. Speaking to 'UNI' she said, ''if our rank fell down we will not get direct seeding and will have to play in the qualifying draws again, which is a tough process''.

She further said, ''we have spent our own money and efforts to reach this position from nowwhere. What is the hitch that prevents BAI forwarding our entries, I do not know''.

''After all BAI has chalked out plans for 2010 Common Wealth Games, in which seniors were let out. As a result we prepared our own plans and went on to play in European circuit, which helped us to climb up in the IBF rankings. Now the reason why BAI was suddenly insisting us to take part in the national camps was not known,'' she said.

''We appeal BAI to reconsider its stand on seniors, who have another two to three years of career and also requested BAI to concentrate on juniors as they did in the previous years,'' she added.

UNI