Kolkata: India’s celebrated shuttler Saina Nehwal raised a question on Sunday (September 13) over to the Badminton World Federation(BWF) decision to hold Thomas and Uber cup in Denmark this year.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the prestigious tournament was postponed twice, but BWF has finally decided to host it from October 3 to 11 in Aarhus, Denmark. Seven countries including Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore & Hong Kong have withdrawn themselves from the event due to the pandemic.
Saina tweeted to raise a question if it was safe enough to hold the event during the pandemic. According to sources, BWF is set to discuss the fate of the tournament on September 13. The report also mentioned that top teams like China and Japan are mulling withdrawal.
7 countries have withdrawn from tournament cause of the pandemic…Is it safe enough to conduct this tournament during this time ??… (Thomas and Uber Cup 2020) #coronavirus https://t.co/HC1qnueeLb
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 13, 2020
BWF had invited Hong Kong and Singapore, but they turned it down. After the inclusion of Finland and Sweden, the 2 16-team competitions now have only 12 teams.
While the Thomas cup is the World Championship for men, the Uber Cup is for women. PV PV Sindhu will lead the women’s campaign in the Uber cup, Kidambi Srikanth will lead the men’s team in the absence of Sai Praneeth in the Thomas cup.
