NEW DELHI: The India Open tournament has come under scathing criticism because of hazardous pollution in recent years. With player welfare in mind, the Badminton World Federation, while unveiling the 2027-2028 calendar earlier this year, had moved the event by a few weeks to February (2-7). However, that move was just made for the 2027 season and there are still concerns if that shift will bring about any major difference. BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said that they'll be examining all the data in the upcoming months and they are open to exploring all options in the future.
"There's obviously a lot of logistical things when you do these things and we have obviously been in close dialogue around it, the whole calendar and so coming into 2027, it's quite a short space. And for now, it hasn't been possible to totally move out of the first quarter. It is documented that pollution will go down a little bit further into January, February," Lund told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing BWF World Championships in New Delhi.
Danish players like Anders Antonsen and Mia Blichfeldt have not been afraid to voice their concerns over the years. Antonsen, in fact, had willingly paid a hefty fine by giving the last three editions a miss. Even with the tournament now being shifted to February -- only for the 2027 season, Antonsen, who's part of the Worlds, had recently stated that he's still unsure of participation.
Bearing in mind the greater interest of the sport in mind, Lund hopes to get players' support. "Although coming here in Delhi now, it's obviously less. So you can look at all of these options and right now it hasn't been possible due to domestic, local, to actually move it totally around in the calendar. But it's something we're looking at, but we have actually looked into the scheduling that has been improved and will be improved further down the years. (...). Some players may not feel it's enough, but we just obviously hope for the players' understanding that we live in a world where everything cannot just be set up. But we hope for their support and continuous support because obviously this is a super important tournament, super important market, not only World Championships, but also the World Tour tournament that we continue to present here in India at the very highest level."
Another major talking point among players and those associated with the badminton fraternity has been the introduction of 3x15 scoring system, moving away from existing system (3x21). Naturally, not everyone is 100 per cent certain about the new idea, which will come into force from January next year. Lund acknowledged the skepticism and felt that the players will adapt quickly.
"(...) You know, they are so good, our players. They are fantastic. I admire their abilities. They'll adapt to this in a split second. I know they'll say, 'Oh, it's hard, it's so...', but they are so good, I'm convinced about that, that they'll adapt quickly. Coaches are a little bit worried because, 'Oh, now it's changing something'. I get it. I don't see big disadvantages other than, yes, there'll be an adaptation, there'll be some, you know, worries about maybe, a slight change in balance, but our analysis and statistical simulation analysis we made on these things, because you can't predict — I don't have a crystal ball," he said.
"What we've done is that we've tried to simulate how would this come out, and so on. Our best opinion, this will come out with the same champions, the same people winning and so on, but maybe, even with a slight twist to having more close matches. I think that's an advantage for badminton. I'm not sure it's an advantage for everyone that may win or lose, but that's not why we're here. We are here to, you know, evolve badminton for the benefit of players at the end of the day (...)."