Leading Indian shuttlers in a din as dates for South Asian Games and Thailand Masters clash

LEADING INDIAN SHUTTLERS INCLUDING Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu have expressed their reluctance to participate in the upcoming South Asian Games as it clashes with the Thailand Masters.

As per the reports, the shuttlers prefer playing in the international tournaments that will help in their ranking as the qualification for the Rio would depend on world rankings in May.

But on the other hand, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) is trying their best to convince the players in playing the tournament. 

"Some of the top players such as Saina and Sindhu have sent letters to the BAI citing fitness and health issues to skip the SAG. We will try to convince them or leave it to the government to take a call," said a BAI source.

Meanwhile, games competition director K Ch Punnaiah Chowdary is unaware of any such development.

"As of now, I have no such information," he said.

The Indian shuttlers are all set to compete at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Hyderabad which will be from February 15 to 21 and participating in SA games will disrupt their training and tournament schedule.

For the first time, all the all the eight nations will be participating in the badminton event in the history of this event. But on this occasion, the Indian shuttlers are finding it difficult to balance these events as it is the Olympic year.

Last Wednesday, BAI had announced that World No.2 Saina and World No.9 Srikanth will be spearheading a strong 15-member squad for the Games.

The World no. 2 Saina had sent her entries for the Thailand Masters, which would be her first event of the new season after skipping the India Grand Prix Gold citing 'illness'.

The Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap is also scheduled to play in the USD 1,20,000 Thailand Grand Prix Gold which will commence on February 8.

"The government does a lot for the players. But this is an Olympic year where all the top players are working really hard to qualify for the event which comes every four years. So naturally no one is happy to play at SA Games," said a top doubles player.

With so much confusion around and with limited time, it remains to be seen if these top shuttlers will participating in the event.