UPBA not learning lessons from past

The Uttar Pradesh Badminton Association (UPBA) does not seem to have learnt lessons from the past. Just a month ago when the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships were organised at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy,power failure on a couple of occasions during matches had caused a lot of problems to the players. They had complained that it broke their rhythm. At that time the UPBA officials held the UP Table Tennis Association (UPTTA) officials responsible as the former explained that “the charge of generators etc was handed over to the UPTTA and so they should have ensured whether there was enough fuel to run it or not.”

Now when the UPBA and the state government are organising the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Badminton tournament,which is again an international event featuring foreign shuttlers,power failures occurred once again. And that too during the inaugural ceremony. Power tripped thrice and the main hall,where the Indian and foreign players besides some top government officials were present for the ceremony,plunged into darkness for almost half-an-hour.

Badminton sensation and Olympian Saina Nehwal who graced the function said,“I hope that this does not happen during matches. In my career,I have not seen such a thing taking place ever in a prestigious international tournament.”Though badminton great Pullela Gopichand said,“This is not such a big thing as power failures do occur during tourneys in India. I know the efforts the organisers put in for organising this event. It is not an easy job,” however,the intermittent power supply during the international meet added to the miseries of the players as the inaugural ceremony itself started about an hour late from the scheduled time.