New Delhi
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) is forming a panel to conduct a thorough investigation into the recent age-fraud complaints and will impose a ban of a minimum of two years on the guilty.
Multiple cases of age-fudging emerged during the All India Sub-Junior under-13 ranking tournament (June 19 to 25) in Hyderabad and at the ongoing U-13 event in Mohali, prompting Sandeep Heble, a member of the Age Fraud Committee, to shoot off a letter to BAI, urging it look into the matter.
It is not an easy decision. We have to be 100 percent certain before we take any action. We already have an age fraud committee, but now we will form a team, including the state secretaries so that a proper investigation can be done to gather evidence, BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra told PTI.
Once we have concrete evidence, we will make a detailed list of the guilty players and ban them for 2 to 3 years from all domestic events, including district, state, national ranking. Aggrieved parents have also approached the organizing secretary Tejinder Bedi in Mohali, protesting against the participation of over-age players in the tournament and demanding immediate action.
There were reports that Bedi had decided not to award ranking points in the Mohali tourney.
However, BAI said the cancellation of ranking points is the federation’s prerogative and it has decided to let the tournament go ahead as per plan but will conduct 2-3 events more to help the affected player make up for the points once the matter is probed properly.
I understand the grievance of the parents but immediate action can’t be taken. Freezing ranking points of the tournaments won’t help and Bedi doesn’t have the power to do that. Ranking point stays as we don’t want the genuine players to suffer, Mishra said.
