Is it a case of one-step forward and several backward for BAI?

Director General of the Commonwealth Games Organising committee V K Verma’s arrest in February for alleged irregularities in the time-keeping equipments contract and his subsequent resignation as president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) had created hope for a new dawn in Indian badminton. Verma had ruled the sport’s apex body for 14 years and though there were more positives than negatives to speak about during his tenure, the general consensus was that he had outlived his utility and there was a need for fresh ideas at the top to take the sport ahead. More than Verma, the badminton fraternity was fed up with his ‘kitchen cabinet’ that ran the day-to-day show and his resignation was looked upon as an opportunity to make BAI a more professional organisation. But the last three months have only created a feeling of disillusionment among those connected to the sport and I won’t be surprised if it becomes an apt case of ‘Out of frying pan and into the fire.’ The glimpses of what to expect in the future came during the maiden India Open Super Series in New Delhi last month. The Badminton World Federation was particularly unhappy with the way the entire tournament was managed, including the accreditation process and lack of public support. [caption id=“attachment_17418” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Indian badminton desperately needs a team of officials who are dedicated in their approach to take the sport ahead. Kristian Dowling/GettyImages”]  [/caption] The argument that the new dispensation was organising a tournament of this magnitude for the first time and had very little time to get their act together after Verma’s arrest is right at one level. But what one cannot forget is that all those foot soldiers working on the tournament were the same people who had the experience of organising a World Championship and three Grand Prix Gold level tournaments. Only this time, they were led by a man who was once thrown out of BAI for being autocratic and who never believed in decentralising authority. TPS Puri replaced local secretary SP Singh as the Tournament Director just about a month before the event and that is where the BAI mandarins showed that not much can be expected from them in terms of reforms and professionalism. Puri’s way of functioning, as the chief national coach, was one of the major reasons behind Prakash Padukone led players’ revolt against the Badminton Association of India in 1997. In fact, when a compromise formula was worked out, Padukone had made it very clear that Puri would not be part of the new body. It was only after Padukone resigned as BAI’s executive president that Puri got active in the association again and is once again looking to be the all-powerful official in the new structure. Ad-hoc chairman and the front runner for the president’s post, Akhilesh Das, has already nominated him as India’s representative for BWF meetings. Puri has also been handling all the communication with the government departments for the last two months, including the schedule for national camps and foreign exposure tours. I don’t know whether it is a mere coincidence or Puri was too busy in all the roles he has been playing that the players selected for the five-week national camp in April-May were communicated about the same only a week before the camp was to end. This delay in communication meant only those part of the Gopi Chand academy were able to make it to the camp (since the camp was held there) while the others didn’t. Also Das and secretary Dr Vijai Sinha have revived the policy of appointing random state secretaries as team managers for important tournaments ahead of the July 2 election. The elections are itself mired in controversy since the secretary has already issued a circular for the AGM to elect the president and treasurer despite the last Executive Committee deciding to conduct polls only after the Constitution Review committee gives its recommendations and the necessary changes are made to the BAI constitution. In fact, the Executive Committee is still to accept Verma’s resignation, a pre-requisite to issue a circular for the election. But then, names may change but the attitude of administrators will hardly be different. It is after all about grabbing power and not about the game.