PUNE, JULY 11: Sheer ignorance on the part of the Badminton Association of India has deprived promising juniors Arup Baidya of West Bengal and Karnataka's Abhishek Bakshi an opportunity to train at the World Badminton Academy currently underway in Cape Town (South Africa). Reason: Non availability of visa. As LC Gupta, secretary BAI explains in a telephonic conversation from Rajasthan,``We felt that in normal circumstances visa clearance takes about 3-5 days but when we applied we were told that it takes about 15 days for clearance.'' During the conversation it was realised that the BAI had applied for visas on June 26, which was four days prior to the commencement of the Academy. ``Since the International Badminton Federation (IBF) is very strict in terms of attendance at the venue and the time delay, which could be well over 10 days, by the time visas arrived we decided against pursuing the matter.'' When queried about whether this occurrence had happened before, Gupta in a jiffy informed ``this is the first time that it has ever happened, and hope it does not again. We have learnt out lesson.'' For Baidya, the top junior shuttler in the country, and Abhishek missing out on the trip meant a lot considering the fact that they were among the 50 boys selected from 90 countries. More so it also meant losing out on training under the likes of legends in Morten Frost-Hansen (Denmark), Han Jian (China), Ardy Wiranata all invitees by the IBF. SS Mani, honorary secretary of BAI, confirmed the `visa confusion,' from Bangalore, ``It's sad that these boys could not make the trip.'' Another interesting revelation by Mani was, Vimal Kumar, who was also invited by the IBF, offered his services to procure visas, ``but nothing went beyond that point.'' Vimal did go for the Academy, where he was one of the coaches. ``An opportunity of a life time lost,'' informed a despondent Baidya and only had to say ``I hope I get a chance in future,'' which were also the same views of Bakshi. What is the World Academy The World Academy is organised by the International Badminton Federation and this edition in Cape Town was the sixth and first to be held in Africa. The previous edition was in Kuala Lumpur. The IBF invites 50 coaches and players and five coaches specially invited by the IBF conduct in association with Andrew Ryan, IBF Director of marketing and coaching. This year the five coaches invited were Han Jian, Ardy Wiranaya, Gill Clark, Gunther Huber and India's Vimal Kumar. The two-week camp was from July 1 to 15. Each country invited is asked to send two players, and the names are known almost as as much as five months in advance. The players are invited through the national federation, while the coach is invited directly by the world body.
