BAI forgets deadline, Saina to miss China

Mumbai, Aug 21: India's top shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, Chetan Anand and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju will be sitting at home while the world's best battle it out in the upcoming China Masters Open tournament, as the Indian badminton authorities forgot to send in their entries.

19-year-old Saina Nehwal who stands number 7 in world rankings said, "I"m very disappointed, because skipping this event will affect my rankings adversely."

"I guess everyone was busy with the world championships, so we didn"t realise that we"d missed the last date. Later, we came to know that our entries had been rejected," said the disappointed star.

Along with Saina, the mixed doubles team also stands at the seventh rank in the world and missing this tournament would pull down their rankings too.

According to a report published in Indian Express, Badminton Association of India (BAI) president VK Verma claimed that the Indian entries had been sent. He was quoted as saying, "Maybe the players didn"t want to play China Masters."

With this, India has again revealed how the country treats its non-cricketing sportspersons.

OneIndia News