The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is once again facing criticism from players, after releasing the new calendar for the 2020 season.
Former world no.1 and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, her husband and fellow badminton player Parupalli Kashyap and World Championships bronze medallist Sai Praneeth were among those that took to Twitter to criticise the calendar.
Kashyap pointed out that there is still no scope for practice amid the coronavirus pandemic and the BWF has drawn out a calendar made of 22 tournaments across the world in five months.
"22 events in 5 months.Ok. Firstly , practice hasn't begun yet . @hkvittinghus @ViktorAxelsen @NSaina @PRANNOYHSPRI @janojorgensen @CarolinaMarin @srikidambi @saiprneeth92. Your thoughts guys," he tweeted.
H.S. Prannoy gave a sarcastic response to the calendar. "Ah could have kept a few more and made it 25 instead. Good job," he said in reply to Kashyap's tweet.
"Ppl are saying to reduce travel amd we are doing more travel than before," Praneeth tweeted while retweeting Kashyap to which Saina responded saying: "Tennis didn't even plan any schedule till October ..."
"5 months non stop travel ... biggest question is what are the international guidelines of travelling during this #coronavirus pandemic," tweeted Saina later.
The BWF announced that the Olympic-qualifying India Open badminton tournament will now be held from December 8 to 13 in New Delhi.
The Thomas & Uber Cup Finals will take place in Aarhus, Denmark on the rescheduled dates of October 3-11, said the BWF.
The tournaments that have been cancelled by the BWF are Orleans Masters 2020 (March 24-29), Singapore Open (April 7-12), Badminton Asia Championships 2020 (April 21-26), XXIV Pan Am Individual Championships 2020 (April 23-26), US Open 2020 (June 23-28), Canada Open 2020 (June 30-July 5), Russian Open (July 7-12), Akita Masters 2020 (August 18-23), Vietnam Open 2020 (August 25-30) and Indonesia Masters 2020 Super 100 (September 29-October 4).
Players had been vocal in their criticism of the BWF earlier for pushing on with the international calendar despite the coronavirus pandemic bringing most other sports to a stop in mid-March. Eventually, it announced the suspension of all tennis tournaments.
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