“This year has gone for me,” was the terse reaction of former World No. 1 K. Srikanth after the last of the Olympic qualifying events, the Singapore Open, was cancelled on Wednesday due to COVID concerns.
“I had a chance of making the cut for the Tokyo Games to be held later this year if I were to compete in the Malaysian and the Singapore Opens (both cancelled). I have been working really hard to regain my peak form,” Srikanth told Sportstar .
“Honestly, I thought the Badminton World Federation could have planned the qualifying events in a country with better quarantine rules like they did hosting three back-to-back events in Thailand earlier this year,” he said.
"Travelling during the pandemic and undergoing quarantine for two to three weeks, having practice only for five to six days for a five-day tournament is never easy," Srikanth said.
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“It is a huge disappointment if a player has to miss the Olympics for no fault of his because of these cancellations,” he said.
“Like in tennis where the players' views and suggestions are sought, in badminton too we should have players' representatives. And, as a player I get to know of the developments in the game through the media,” Srikanth said.
“Definitely, with the pandemic threat on, the Olympics itself could have been rescheduled to a later date this year so that the qualifying events could have been planned better,” he said.
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“To be frank, I have no idea what is the thinking of the BWF because they don’t even respond to the views and concerns raised by the players through their tweets. Since, there is no response, we tend to presume that nothing is being done,” the champion shuttler said.
“When there are 50-50 chances of hosting an event, why schedule it in such a way it eventually gets cancelled. This is where the Europeans gained an advantage over the Asians as their events were through, picking important ranking points despite some players testing COVID-19 positive,” Srikanth concluded.
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