Badminton assn to vie for hosting national championship

Tribune News Service

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, May 4

The Chandigarh Badminton Association (CBA) will bid for hosting a national ranking U-19 badminton championship scheduled to be held in November.

The association had earlier hosted a national ranking championship in January 2020, which was also presided by Anurag Thakur, Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. On the basis of the successful conduct of the championship, the CBA is again going to bid for hosting this national championship. The proposal is likely to get clearance from the Badminton Association of India (BAI) later this month.

“We have already shown our interest in hosting this national ranking championship. We have a vast infrastructure in Chandigarh. With the support of the Chandigarh Sports Department, we can host this championship in a professional manner. Earlier, we had successfully hosted a national ranking championship, which turned out to be one of the most liked events of Chandigarh,” said Surinder Mahajan, Secretary, Chandigarh Badminton Association & joint secretary, BAI.

“During their last visit to the city, BAI officials had also appreciated the infrastructure here. The city has over three badminton courts and two practice courts for hosting such tournaments. Top-ranked players of India will play in this tournament. We are expecting the arrival of more than 1,200 players, along with their coaches/managers, from different parts of the country. The BAI will also select the top performers of this championship in the probables’ squads, meant for selecting Indian team for future tournaments, if the CBA gets approval of hosting this championship,” said Mahajan.

“Last time, as many as 40 players from Chandigarh participated in these nationals. This is a rare feat for a small a city like Chandigarh. Hopefully, participation of local players will go up this year. We will also try to rope in current India’s top shuttler PV Sindhu to come here and spend some time with the players. However, her arrival will be subject to her availability,” said Mahajan.

In 2020, over 30 technical qualified officials supervised the championship and for the first time in the history of the city, live scoring was provided.

“Even this year, we have to follow all guidelines laid by the Government of India. This will be surely a treat to watch for local shuttlers, who usually watch top-ranked players on television. Through this tournament, we are also promoting badminton among youngsters, who can learn a lot while watching such championships,” said Col Raj Parmar, senior vice-president, CBA.

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