The sport’s governing body in the country also said that “the participation of players in the upcoming senior and junior tournaments is mandatory” and that it “will assess the performance of all players every six months based on their performance in the national / international ranking tournaments ”.
The national badminton season will kick off with two senior All India ranking tournaments in December after a gap of nearly 20 months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The two senior ranking tournaments in Chennai and Hyderabad respectively will be followed by junior tournaments for U-15, U-17 and U-19 in Panchkula in January next year. The third senior ranking event will take place in Chhattisgarh in March 2022.
“The participation of players in the next senior and junior tournaments is mandatory and their performance will be taken into account before the trials for the inclusion of commuters for the national senior and junior coaches camp, for participation in the BWF international tournaments and the finalization of the Tops Elite and Development groups. “BAI said in a statement.
BAI General Secretary Ajay Singhania, however, said there would be exemptions for elite-level players.
“We have made exemptions for top players in the past and there will also be exemptions for top ranked BWF players this time around,” he told PTI.
There are a number of high-profile international tournaments planned for next year, including the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.
Singhania said the decision was made with a view to training the next generation of players.
“Due to the pandemic, national badminton has not been able to take off for almost 20 months and evaluating the performance of players based on national and international rankings alone does not seem to be the best solution in the current circumstances”, a- he declared.
“Our goal is to run tournaments and trials that are transparent and to ensure a proper assessment of players’ performance and fitness level every six months, so that deserving new talent has the opportunity to join the camp as well. as well as the TOPs. list of players. “
BAI said it would “also create a reserve roster of elite and junior players who could be prepared afterwards to create a bench force as well as replace the main commuter roster if necessary.”
In the letter to the secretaries of all affiliated units, BAI had offered to organize selection trials for top performing players in national events and also consider some players based on their BWF rankings.
“The sixteen (16) best singles players (men and women) and the eight (8) best pairs of doubles (men and women) selected respectively in the aforementioned senior and junior ranking tournaments,” he said.
“Players ranked between 26 and 50 in the BWF Senior World Rankings (men and women) and players ranked up to 20th place in the BWF World Junior Rankings (men and women) in all categories at the date of selection tests.
“In addition, one of the 58 players (men and women) who had been selected by BAI / SAI at the end of 2019 and who might not qualify for the trials in the 2 categories above will also be included to participate selection trials. ”
BAI had conducted selection trials for the Sudirman Cup and the Thomas and Uber Cup finals in August, in which more than 100 junior and senior players participated.
BAI, however, had directly selected top players such as PV Sindhu, Saina Newhal, B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and the male pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.
