NEW DELHI: The India Open is turning out to be an organizational nightmare for Badminton Association of India. If pollution, hygiene and a monkey ‘inadvertently’ wandering inside the stadium have been dominating the news in the last couple of days, the third day had its share of unwanted controversy -- an unprecedented interruption because of bird-dropping.
The interruption was during a high-stake contest between two former World Championships medalists, HS Prannoy and Loh Kean Yew of Singapore on Court 1 at the IG Indoor Stadium. Later after the match, Prannoy said that they seemed to have spotted bird dropping, which led to the interruption. There was another short break in the opening game too called by the chair umpire because of the same reason.
The match itself was an absorbing contest with both Prannoy and Loh going all out. Loh rallied to get across the line 18-21, 21-19, 21-14, after trailing in the first game. The said interruption occurred when Prannoy was leading 1-0 in the decider. "I think it was bird s*** which kind of halted the game for a while," Prannoy said. Even in the opening game the chair umpire briefly halted the tie when Prannoy was leading 16-14. Loh walked in front of the net to check and seemed repulsed by what he just saw on the playing surface.
Loh, the 2021 world champion, also spoke about the difficult conditions. "The weather is not so good. It took a toll on my health. Other than that, I'm just taking it one match at a time. I breathe lesser here. I just wear my mask when I can. Other than that, I try to stay indoors as much as possible," he said.