Following Saina Nehwal's announcement about skipping the selection trials for the Commonwealth and Asian Games, the shuttler questioned the timing of the trials and slammed the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for "putting" her out of the two mega sporting events scheduled to be held later this year.
In response to these allegations, BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra told Sports Tak, "selectors choose this slot keeping in mind the back-to-back tournaments in which players have to participate... this is the available slot or window to conduct trials because after this there are back to back tournaments lined up. So we could not have it on any other date or window. The selectors gave us this window after looking at all the possibilities."
The governing body had called for selection trials on April 2 to pick the Indian team for big-ticket events including the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Asian Games in Hangzhou and Thomas Cup and Uber Cup in Bangkok from May 8 to 15 as well.
The BAI has exempted players inside the top 15 of the BWF rankings from the trials but the shuttlers ranked between 16 to 50 in the latest world rankings, released on March 29, will have to participate in the trials to be selected for the team.
A London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina participated in the German Open (March 8-13), All England Championships (March 16-20) and Swiss Open (March 22-27) before pulling out of the Korean Open (April 5-10). The 32-year-old has been battling injuries and poor form for the past couple of years. This has seen her ranking slip to 23rd but she showed signs of returning to her previous self when during a three-game match against Akane Yamaguchi at this year's All England Championships.
When asked whether there were any chances to consider her participation, Sanjay said, "Saina Nehwal is a big name and we respect her in every manner, she has done a tremendous job for Indian badminton she is ideal, juniors will take time to reach her level she is an asset to us. If there is any scope to give her a chance selectors committee will sit and take a call it depends on them."
