PUNE, NOV 1: Staying in tune with the International Badminton Federation (IBF), the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has taken a landmark decision to grant wild-card entries. These will go to ranked players who fail to gain a berth through the normal quota granted to each state and thereby are compelled to play the qualifying rounds at Mini and Junior Nationals at Vijaywada and Kohima respectively.The idea of wild-card berths was hit upon when the possibility of several talented players losing a berth in the main draw became real. The players, especially from states with a large number of ranked players, were at loss on account of fixed number of singles (two per event) and doubles (one) entries at Nationals. Other incentives were in the form of extra entries for National championships gained in the preceding year.With the successful implementation of the new ranking system since July which updates the rankings after every all-India tournament, one aspect that came under focus was to avoid thesystem from dwarfing itself. It meant giving each player his or her due while facilitating impartial draws at successive tourneys.In the old system, ranked players who played the qualifying rounds would have been treated as any other qualifier and placed at random in the main draw thus disturbing the balance which was unfair not only to the shuttlers but also to their opponents.For instance, a ranked player (one of the country's top eight) not finding a place in his state team, would make his way through to the qualifiers en route to the main draw.In all probability, he or she would run into a seeded player early, making it a rough path to the quarter-finals which otherwise would have been smooth sailing.In other words, the system highlights three major drawbacks - injustice to the ranked player despite figuring in the top four, no real incentive for the player to play all-India tournaments other than Nationals and a lop-sided draw.The idea of wild-cards, mooted by SV Natu, joint secretaryBAI, was instantly accepted by both the president VK Verma and executive president Prakash Padukone. As an interim measure, the BAI has decided to grant wild-card entries to players ranked in the National top eight in singles and top four in doubles but playing the qualifying rounds, applicable to the forthcoming mini and junior Nationals.``The concrete proposal on the issue for all the future Nationals will be discussed at the annual general meeting of BAI to be held shortly,'' informed SV Natu in a telephonic conversation before leaving for Vijaywada on Thursday.
