No SAI funding, some players without coaches: PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen still win titles during Europe tour

P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen won the singles titles at the Hylo Open in Germany on Sunday. But just weeks before the wins, Indian badminton players were told that the Sports Authority of India (SAI) would not fund their European tour, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

The tour included four tournaments in Finland, Denmark, France and Germany. Players were informed about the funding decision just days before the Arctic Open began in Finland on October 6.

“When I got to know, I was a bit shocked and wondered how the funding hadn’t gone through. I hadn’t faced something like that before,” Sindhu told The Indian Express.

“But at that point, I couldn’t really decide that if there was no funding, I wouldn’t play. For me, the priority was to participate and focus on what I needed to do, how I needed to play my matches and keep on improving. Obviously, it was surprising that we couldn’t get the funding, whatever the reason may have been. I managed the funding on my own a bit and OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest, her backers) also helped me in this,” Sindhu said.

Why was the funding stopped

Three officials involved in managing badminton said they believed the decision could be linked to India’s poor performance at the Asian Games. Indian shuttlers returned from Aichi-Nagoya without an individual medal for the first time since 2014.

However, a senior SAI official denied this. The official said the funds were not released because the Badminton Association of India (BAI) did not send its proposal on time.

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“Earlier, the rules required federations to submit proposals 90 days in advance without names and 60 days in advance with the names. This was primarily because you could plan your trip well in advance. But the federation said it could not do it that early, so we revised the deadline to 30 days. Even then, we did not receive the proposal. These new guidelines apply to everybody. If we don’t have the proposal with the names 30 days before a tournament, we will not process it,” the official said.

The official said funding for future tournaments will be restored. However, players will not get back the money they spent during the past four weeks.

Players also travelled without coaches

The funding issue also affected coaches. During the French Open, Ashmita Chaliha had fellow player Isharani Baruah in her corner while beating Akane Yamaguchi. Tanvi Sharma, who reached the Denmark Open quarterfinals, also competed without a coach.

While 26 Indian players competed at the Arctic Open, six withdrew from the Denmark Open, seven from the French Open and nine from the Hylo Open.

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Despite the funding problems, Indian players had a strong run in Europe. Sindhu reached the French Open final, while Ashmita beat World No. 3 Yamaguchi. Anmol Kharb reached the Hylo Open semifinals.

Sen ended his year-long wait for a title, while Sindhu won her second title of the year and returned to No. 6 in the world rankings.

“For me, the focus was on how I could improve my performance. That was the most important thing at the end of the day. See, these things keep happening, but they shouldn’t stop us,” Sindhu said.