Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth to get direct entry into National Championship quarter-finals
The Badminton Association of India has decided that players who ranked in top 50 in the BWF World Rankings will get direct entry into the quarters of the National Championship. This means that senior Indian shuttlers, Saina, Sindhu, and Srikanth will feature in the latter stages of the tournament.
The upcoming National Championship, which for the first time, will be a Rs 1 crore prize money event, will see the presence of the country’s top shuttlers like World Championship silver medalist Sindhu and bronze medalist Nehwal, as BAI decided to give direct entry to the Indian players who featured in the top 50 in the BWF rankings. Currently, Sindhu and Nehwal are placed at the 2nd and 12th positions respectively in the world rankings.
Similarly, Srikanth, HS Prannoy, B Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma and Ajay Jayaram will also benefit from this step as they are at the 8th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 20th positions respectively.
"It will be mandatory for all the top-ranked players to participate in the event. Those players who are in the world
Sharma also announced scholarships to avoid the drain of talent in badminton caused due to financial pressures.
"Most of the times, good talented players drop out of the game due to financial constraints. Hence to support such players, we will be providing a scholarship of Rs 25,000-50,000 per month for about 20
He also ensured that the association will handle the age-fraud in a tough manner.
"We want to erase this over-age issue by conducting the tests well before the season so that no one should undergo the mental trauma during a tournament or a camp. If a player is found over-age, we will put him/her in the next category as we think the parents are the culprits rather than the players themselves," he concluded.
