CHENNAI: IN March 2017, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced its landmark plans for the 2018 calendar. The world governing body for the sport promised to revamp the existing schedule. More importantly, it announced hikes across all of its blue-riband tournaments. Several players and coaches, both in public and in private, had been lamenting about the prize money on offer and the BWF had responded in style.
Sometime later in the year, the BWF came back with an addendum. “You will be well compensated for your efforts on the court,” it said. “But you will not be permitted to cheery-pick your tournaments, and will be penalised if you fail to turn up at certain tournaments.” The Superseries and Superseries Premier would be rebranded to the ‘World Tour’ (something like the ATP World Tour). In return, BWF asked its top singles (15 in men and women) and doubles players (10 pairs in each discipline) to play in a minimum of 12 international events every calendar year beginning 2018.
It’s that last point that has created a bone of contention among the badminton fraternity. While most top players anyway end up playing anywhere between 10-15 tournaments in the year, they did not like it being forced down their throats. In the last few weeks alone, Viktor Axelsen, Saina Nehwal and Carolina Marin have aired their displeasure about BWF’s new rules. One top-ranked player called it a ‘retrogade step’.
However, one top player who is just happy to get on with it without spending much time talking about it is India’s PV Sindhu. At a Chennai Smashers-related event on Thursday, she opted not to blame the BWF. “A tight schedule is always there,” she said. “We need to be prepared. We cannot blame the BWF always. Nothing is going to change now. We will discuss with coaches and decide what tournaments to play and what to skip.”
Another player who opted to look on the bright side was mixed doubles specialist Chris Adcock. “It goes both ways,” he said. “When you are playing in more tournaments, you get more money and that’s obviously good. But when you get to pick and choose, you get more time for training and building up fitness. So you will have to balance it out.” The challenge of balancing the calendar from 2018 will be half the sport. If the top players feature in fewer than 12, they will lose ranking points as well as be penalised. Sindhu is aware of that but prefers not to talk about it. “You need to be fit enough, train and perform.”
swaroop@newindianexpress.com