With plenty of overage issues cropping up in his sport, Badminton Association of India president Himanta Biswa Sarma has affirmed that his organisation would ensure no stone is left unturned in tackling the menace.
“Issue of players being overage will be sorted by putting players through the tests before the start of the season. This will eliminate any unnecessary issues from coming to the fore during a tournament,” Sarma said, prior to the departure of Indian teams for the Badminton Asia Junior Championship s.
The BAI chief said that if found overage, players would simply be moved up to a higher category and not face punishment. “We are of the opinion that it is more of the parents’ fault when it comes to age fraud. Since the players themselves are innocent, we will push them to their correct age category, if found to be over the permissible age.”
Sarma also unveiled a scholarship programme for juniors. “There have been a lot of talented youngsters who have had to drop out of the game due to financial constraints. We want to minimise that as much as possible and hence we are looking to provide scholarship to about 20 juniors initially and then increase the numbers slowly.
“The players will receive between Rs 25,000-Rs 50,000 per month depending on various factors,” said Sarma.
Karnataka’s Kriti Bharadwaj is the lone representative from the State in the Indian squad, in the U-15 girls section.
Indian Squads: Boys U-17: Meirab Maisram, Dhruv Rawat, Iman Sonowal, Akash Yadav, Amit Rathore, Sathish Kumar, Edwin Joy, Arvind V Suresh, Vishnuvardhan Goud, Ishan Bhatnagar, Khush Chug.
U-15: Sidhant Gupta, Ayush Raj Gupta, Punshiba Yengkhom, Jayant Rana, Varun Kapur, Vikas Yadav, Arshad Shaik, Shubham Patel, Sanjeev Rao, Khajamoinuddin Shaik
Girls U-17: Gayatri Gopichand, Aakarshi Kashyap, Unnati Bisht, Malvika Bansode, Ritika Thakkar, Samiya Imad Farooqui, Varshini VS, Sahiti Suresh, S Kavipriya, Keyura Mopati
U-15: Sneha Rajwar, Ashi Rawat, Kriti Bharadwaj, Treesa Jolly, Reza Mehreen, Tanya Hemant, Aditi Bhatt.
