Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram on Friday sought help from the top echelons of the government and badminton world after he was stopped from boarding a flight to London on his way to the Denmark Open BWF Super 750 tournament.
Jayaram, a former world no 13, was not allowed to enter the Bangalore-London British Airways flight on Friday morning as he was not carrying a UK visa.
The 33-year-old has now booked a ticket in Air France.
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“I had initially booked my flight in British Airways since there was no Air France flight from Bangalore last night. The rest of the team had travelled from Delhi as they had to collect passports. But I wasn’t allowed to board the flight as it was a special air-bubble flight to UK and I didn’t have a UK visa,” Jayaram told PTI.
With the United Kingdom witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, a quarantine is in place in London.
The rest of the Indian squad, including Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Subhankar Dey left for Denmark from New Delhi in an Air France flight on Thursday night.
“I have booked a flight in Air France now, I tried to contact the airlines but there has not been any communication. I have all the documents including the same type C visa, COVID-negative certificate and mail from Danish counsellor. Just hope there are no issues anymore.”
Earlier, in a series of tweets, Jayaram called for help and tagged Badminton World Federation, Badminton Association of India, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others.
The Super 750 tournament, which will mark the resumption of the sport’s international calendar post the COVID-19 hiatus, is set to be played in Odense from October 13 to 18.
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