Skirt rule is the last thing that will help, says Gopi Chand

It was a desperate and sexist move aimed at reviving flagging interest in women’s badminton and on Sunday in Qing Dao, China, the mandatory skirt rule met its desired fate — it was scrapped. Facing fierce criticism from superpowers China and fellow Asian countries, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) in its council meeting decided not to introduce the regulations regarding the mandatory use of skirts and to “further investigate the new clothing regulations after accepting a recommendation from the Women in Badminton Committee.” The rule, which was to take effect Wednesday, was intended to make women appear more feminine and attractive to fans and corporate sponsors, officials said.  As per the rule, female shuttlers would still be allowed to wear shorts or long pants but these must be worn beneath a dress or skirt. Initially, the skirt-only rule was supposed to be implemented on May 1 but after mounting criticism from various quarters, it was deferred by one month. And now, badminton’s governing body has deferred the same till December. But players, coaches and several others associated with the sport believe that the rule might never come into play. Asked what could’ve transpired behind BWF’s decision to postpone the ruling for a second time, India’s chief national coach P Gopi Chand was unusually candid in his remark. “They might have chickened out,” he told Firstpost from Hyderabad, adding: “With China opposing the ruling, there wasn’t much they could do anyway.” [caption id=“attachment_17644” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Saina Nehwal has always maintained that she’s more comfortable playing in shorts. Bobby Yip/Reuters”]  [/caption] The former All England champion in fact went on to add that he didn’t see the ruling getting enforced. “I doubt it. And that’s because the BWF doesn’t have any reference point to prove that making women players wear skirts has helped popularise any sport,” he said. If the BWF is drawing a parallel here with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), then it has got it’s basics wrong. More than anything else, it has ignored their sport’s tradition. Female shuttlers have always played in shorts for a lot of them, especially Muslim women, feel awkward and conscious while moving around the court in a skirt. It hampers their performance. So while you have a Li Na or a Zheng Jie turning up in a skirt on a tennis court, fellow Chinese Wang Yihan or Wang Xin prefer to chase the shuttle in shorts. Writing in The Hindu, columnist Kalpana Sharma rightly points out that the WTA is managed independently and women players have a say in its decisions. “Thus, what women wear is decided by women players and not imposed by a male club. Maria Sharapova might look like a model but no one can question her skill as a player. People come to watch good tennis, not to gawk at women players who are fashion statements,” writes Sharma. In fact, India’s most recognisable woman shuttler after Saina Nehwal, Jwala Gutta, a firm believer in “attractive presentation on court” welcomed the BWF decision. “They couldn’t have gone ahead with the mandatory skirt ruling anyways. It can never be a compulsion on the players and it is good that they are rethinking the decision," said the most photographed Indian shuttler. The decision to defer the implementation of the ruling was made after receiving feedback from the Athletes Commission, which represents the players’ interests in the BWF Council with full voting rights. “There have been various feedbacks from many quarters and after taking into account all these comments, especially those from the Athletes’ Commission, it is our recommendation to the Council to do further study before implementing new clothing regulations,” former world champion Nora Perry, who heads the Women In Badminton Committee, said. Jwala, who has a keen eye for fashion, was pleased with the committee’s decision to bring apparel manufacturers on board. “It is nice that they are working closely with the cloth manufacturers. Hopefully they can come out with designer on-court outfits which will help raise the glamour quotient and the profile of women in badminton,” she said. The BWF may think that getting the women players to don skirts will get them the TRPs, but the fact is that they need to glamourise the sport as a whole, market it well, make it more spectator friendly and use the big names to generate recall value with the public. As Gopi summed it up perfectly, “Imposing the skirt rule is the last thing that will help the sport get an audience.” With inputs from PTI