The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has put a large question mark over the India Open, due to be played in New Delhi later this month, by saying the view at the moment was to postpone the tournament given the coronavirus outbreak. It has written with its concerns to the Badminton World Federation (BWF), which will take the final call.
The March 24-29 Super 500 tournament, which is expecting top players from across the world, may be affected given the visa restrictions and quarantine directives in place for international passengers.
"From what it looks right now, we will have to postpone the tournament," BAI president Himanta Biswa Sarma told ESPN while confirming that the Indian association has written to the world body on its view of hosting the tournament under the prevailing uncertain circumstances. The BWF, for its part, has said that "no decision has been taken so far in a change of intent in holding the tournament".
"Preparations are on and we are ready to host the tournament if we have to," said another BAI official. "But given the current situation, it's certainly not ideal. We are getting inquiries from players who are worried they may be put under quarantine after being screened at the airport. At this point, hosting a tournament which will have hundreds of athletes and support staff coming from all over the world just seems like a huge risk and our letter to BWF conveys our anxieties on the matter."
The foreign top players expected to show up for the tournament are Viktor Axelsen, Shi Yuqi, Carolina Marin, Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi and He Bingjiao, among others.
The BAI is also taking cue from the recent postponement of an Olympic qualifier of much bigger magnitude scheduled for roughly the same dates in New Delhi - The Shooting World Cup. "That they've pushed the dates of the competition also gives us reason to believe that this perhaps not the right time to host international tournaments in the country. Threat to health isn't something that should be ignored," the BAI official added. The combined rifle and pistol tournament which was to be held in the national capital between March 15-25 will now be staged in two parts in May and June after tournament organisers, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) approached the world body, ISSF, with a proposal to push the event from its current schedule.
It is understood that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the union health ministry have sought an update from the BAI on the health status of Chinese players who are expected to participate in the tournament. So far, five tournaments on the BWF calendar across February and March - Polish Open, Vietnam International Challenge, Portugese International Championships, German Open and China Masters - have been postponed or cancelled as a result of the outbreak. Seven Indian players have pulled out of the All England Open this week, which is going ahead on schedule starting March 11 in Birmingham. With the Olympic qualification window supposed to close on April 30, currently just two Indian singles players, PV Sindhu and Sai Praneeth are safe within the top-16 cutoff zone.
The present official tally of those who've contracted the virus in India stands at 43. To contain the spread of the disease, India has suspended visas granted on or before March 3 to nationals of Japan, Italy, Iran and South Korea who have not entered the country yet. The suspension of visas issued to Chinese nationals issued on or before February 5 also continues to remain in force.
Earlier last week, the 3x3 basketball tournament that was to take place in Bengaluru between March 18 and 22 was the first Olympic qualifier to be postponed in the country.