Uncertainty loomed over the start of the national badminton camp in Hyderabad as the Sports Authority of India (SAI) officials and the players could not agree on the duration of the quarantine period for the second day.
SAI had announced the camp from Monday to September 27 to build-up for the biennial Thomas and Uber Cup Finals (Oct 3-11) in Aarhus, Denmark, which will restart international competition after a lengthy lockdown due to the pandemic.
The quarantine protocols though are yet to be implemented for the camp to start. SAI wants all campers to produce Covid-19 negative certificates on arrival at the SAI-Gopichand National Badminton Academy and be on a weeklong quarantine. They will be tested again on the sixth day of the isolation period and only on clearing both tests will they be allowed to hit the courts.
The players want fewer days in quarantine as the team announcement is on September 17, a day before the deadline for sending entries. A week’s quarantine would mean no trials and loss of precious practice time for players already hit due to the pandemic.
“It is quite frustrating because I have wanted to train for the last couple of days but could not,” a top player said on condition of anonymity. “If this was two months away from a tournament I would be okay but not now, especially when there’s hardly been any proper training. Will we send a team without any training then?”
{{/usCountry}}“It is quite frustrating because I have wanted to train for the last couple of days but could not,” a top player said on condition of anonymity. “If this was two months away from a tournament I would be okay but not now, especially when there’s hardly been any proper training. Will we send a team without any training then?”
{{/usCountry}}Players who have already been training for more than a month after lockdown restrictions eased said if they go into quarantine all their hard work would be wasted. “We will be back to square one and will have to start from scratch. This is top international level badminton we are talking about. You can’t just stop and start whenever you wish,” said the player on condition of anonymity. “We want to keep training. If we go into quarantine, what’s the point of this camp?”
It is learnt a video conference was held on Tuesday, which was attended by the 26 national campers, two SAI officials and chief national coach Pullela Gopichand. The players put across their queries and apprehensions in the meeting.
SAI had initially decided the players must stay at the academy to ensure greater safety. Players from Hyderabad want to stay at home and have communicated this to SAI. “We’ve submitted a formal request. They told us they will get back to us,” said another top India shuttler.
SAI officials explained at the conference that protocols implemented for training camps in other sports included a two-week quarantine, but it was reduced on the request of Badminton Association of India (BAI).
Some players like Subhankar Dey, Sanjana Santosh, Aakarshi Kashyap and MR Arjun have reached the academy, produced Covid-19 certificates and have been allotted rooms at the camp. Some outstation players are still unsure about their travel. “I am still discussing with people concerned whether to go or wait,” said one of them.
Saina joins elite bunch
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, named in an original eight-player group called for a camp but who chose to train on her own with husband and India player Parupalli Kashyap, has finally reported. PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, N Sikki Reddy, Ashwini Ponnappa, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are the other members of that group selected in August.
Rankireddy, who had tested Covid-19 positive a week earlier, and partner Shetty did not attend that original camp. They have pulled out of the Thomas Cup as their training never began. Rankireddy though tested negative in a rapid antigen test done on Tuesday.