HYDERABAD: It’s official. Eight-time women’s national champions Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien have decided to split as a combination.
But the duo will play in the Asian Championship (April 7 in Korea) and the Sudirman World Team Championship (May 10 in China).
Badminton Association of India president VK Varma said at the end of the India Open here on Sunday that they have asked the two to continue as doubles combination till these two tournaments. “We had a word with the two players. We advised them not to part till these two tournaments as it will be difficult to field a scratch team for the Sudirman Cup,’’ said Varma.
Varma said after these two championships, Jwala and Shruti will play with different partners. Jwala will partner with Ashiwini Ponnappa and Shruti will pair with Aparna Balan. “We realised that the combination was becoming stale. We wanted a younger combination,’’ added Varma.
The BAI chief said the doubles pairs will be sent to Indonesia for intensive training in June soon after the Sudirman Cup.
Varma also said young players like P Kashyap, Gurusai Dutta and Adititi Mutakakar will be sent to Malaysian for the junior camp there. The BAI has also decided to conduct five senior tournaments, two of them will be held in Karnataka. The calendar will wind up with $50,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix tournament at Lucknow in December. Apart from that there will be eight prize money tournaments in the junior section, starting with Krishna Khaitan tournament in June.
The BAI has also taken serious view of the age menace. “The player will have to register online with the BAI to stop age fudging. We will tackle the under-19 and under-15 at the start,’’ said Varma. The BAI chief added they were happy with the work of Pullela Gopi Chand and Sanjeev Sachdev as coaches. He also said that after successful conduct of India Open, the focus will be on World Championship that will be held here in August.
Sudirman Cup team: Men: Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhat. Women: Saina Nehwal, Saheli Gokhale.
Mixed doubles: V Diju and Jwala Gutta. Men’s doubles: Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar.
Women’s doubles : Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien.