The Indian Open badminton event featuring a host of international stars and scheduled to take place in Hyderabad from September 4 was postponed on Tuesday in the wake of the recent bomb blasts in the city.
“We had to postpone the event as many teams had expressed concern due to the prevailing situation in Hyderabad after the blasts. It is likely to take place in January (7-13) now,” Badminton Associaton of India president V K Verma said.
Players from 15 countries were supposed to participate in the $150,000 event which also had Olympic qualification points. Malaysia, fielding a strong 27-member contingent, were the first to express concern after the blasts on Saturday. China, Japan and Korea also requested for a change in date.
“The issue is not how we see the situation from here. The impression left in the minds of participating teams from Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan was that of anxiety.
“We told them that the government will ensure fool-proof security and the situation is coming back to normal, but they said they were suffering from anxiety and concern,” he said.
“This is an international tournament where top players were coming and they can play only when the mind is absolutely free. So, they requested us to postpone the event and change the dates of the tournament,” Verma said.
Olympic gold medallist Taufiq Hidayat of Indonesia and star Malaysian shuttler Lee Chong Wei, Mohd Hafiz Hashim and newly-crowned world champion Zhu Lin of China were among the top players scheduled to take part in the event.
Verma, however, said that the postponement was not a setback and they will be able to rope in much bigger field next year.