KBA open to amending constitution to find middle ground

At the Executive Committee meeting on Friday, it was decided to take legal opinion before proceeding further.

Representative Image: The BAI had taken exception to the constitution of the KBA Executive Committee where life members are in a majority compared to district association representatives.  | Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

Two days after its disaffiliation, the Karnataka Badminton Association (KBA), after its Executive Committee Meeting on Friday, has decided to explore ways to amend its Constitution and bring it in line with Badminton Association of India (BAI) requirements.

The BAI had taken exception to the constitution of the KBA Executive Committee where life members are in a majority compared to district association representatives. KBA’s plan to protect members’ interests by forming a separate badminton-only body and ensuring compliance with BAI bylaws there didn’t find favour.

The KBA has thus moved to find a middle ground within the existing Association structure, which may mean that members might have to put up with a few restrictions like reduced access to badminton courts etc.

“It’s a balancing act,” said a KBA official. “Our primary concern is players’ welfare but members bring close to 30% of the revenues through subscriptions and such. So, we are accountable to them too. But we have to come out with a solution. We will be consulting a few lawyers in the next few days to see how this can be done.”

The official also conceded that going forward it will become mandatory for all State associations to follow the Government of India Sports Code, in letter and spirit. “We are adhering to it with respect to the affiliation of districts and such. But we might have to amend our bylaws so that district members have more voting rights than life members.”