NEW DELHI: Indian badminton players and coaching staff can heave a sigh of relief. Their trip to Suzhou in China for the Sudirman Cup was confirmed following the completion of their biometrics at the Chinese embassy in Delhi on Monday. The visas are expected to come through on Tuesday, sources told TOI.
The players and other contingent members returned to Hyderabad on Monday evening and will leave for Bengaluru on Wednesday, from where they will board their flight to Shanghai in the evening. The tournament is scheduled from May 14-21.
India’s leading players, including two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, World No. 9 HS Prannoy and Asian Championships doubles title winners Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are part of the 23-member strong contingent.
The development came two days after TOI had reported that the players were yet to receive their visas for the tournament despite repeated follow-ups by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) with the Chinese embassy.
It’s been learnt that the issue was taken up at a diplomatic level by the Indian government with the Chinese foreign ministry delegation, which was in India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa.
After the government’s intervention, the Chinese embassy informed the BAI about the processing of visas and appointment time for biometrics on Monday. The matter had also been taken up with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) – the sport’s global governing body.
“It has certainly come as a relief to everyone. We were worried about missing the tournament this time. India are one of the favourites to lift the trophy banking on our players’ recent performances in team events,” a source said.
India had qualified for the Sudirman Cup after winning bronze at the Badminton Asia mixed team championships in February.
The players and other contingent members returned to Hyderabad on Monday evening and will leave for Bengaluru on Wednesday, from where they will board their flight to Shanghai in the evening. The tournament is scheduled from May 14-21.
India’s leading players, including two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, World No. 9 HS Prannoy and Asian Championships doubles title winners Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are part of the 23-member strong contingent.
The development came two days after TOI had reported that the players were yet to receive their visas for the tournament despite repeated follow-ups by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) with the Chinese embassy.
It’s been learnt that the issue was taken up at a diplomatic level by the Indian government with the Chinese foreign ministry delegation, which was in India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa.
After the government’s intervention, the Chinese embassy informed the BAI about the processing of visas and appointment time for biometrics on Monday. The matter had also been taken up with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) – the sport’s global governing body.
“It has certainly come as a relief to everyone. We were worried about missing the tournament this time. India are one of the favourites to lift the trophy banking on our players’ recent performances in team events,” a source said.
India had qualified for the Sudirman Cup after winning bronze at the Badminton Asia mixed team championships in February.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsUpdate is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
