Was India's doubles exit fixed? Jwala thinks so

India’s exit from the doubles competition was heartbreaking for everyone watching. But now Indian doubles star Jwala Gutta has alleged that matches in their group might have been fixed as well. These allegations comes in the wake of a scandal involving women badminton players who “threw” matches to manipulate the draw, prompting jeers from the crowd and angering fans for undermining the spirit of the Games. The World Badminton Federation charged eight players with misconduct on Wednesday after each team in two women’s Olympic doubles encounters tried to “throw” the matches to secure a more favourable draw later on. “The pairs have been charged … with ’not using one’s best efforts to win a match’ and ‘conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport’,” the federation said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_400647” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jwala and Ponappa think Japan fixed the match. Reuters[/caption] South Korea head coach Sung Han-kook said two of his teams had attempted to throw their matches against China’s world champion duo and an Indonesian team but added it was in retaliation against the Chinese team who instigated the farce. He said they had deliberately tried to throw the first of the tainted matches to ensure their leading duo of Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli would be sure not to meet China’s number two pair until the gold medal decider. But so far, it was an allegation that had not reached Group B, which was the group that India was in. “Japan is a strong team, we were shocked when they lost. I personally suspect foul play, it is shocking,” said Jwala Gutta. “I’ve known them for quite a while and know the kind of game they play. Japanese are known to never give up and I know both the pairs and for me, it shouldn’t have been this easy.” “They threw the match because they didn’t want to face the Chinese in the next round,” she further added. “Action should be taken against the guilty.” The Indian team missed out on a quarter-final spot but just 1 point – Japan had a 4-point difference and India just had 3. “I never expected that people to throw away the match. We have not been taught like that. We deserved to be in the quarter-finals,” said Jwala. P Gopichand, India’s coach, said that the BWF was warned about such a situation arising in the manager’s meeting. “In the manager’s meeting, this issue came up – the BWF just brushed it aside and said that it won’t happen,” said Gopichand. Of course, this isn’t the first time such an issue is cropping up. Chinese coach Li Yongbo admitted that China fixed the semi-final of the 2004 Athens Olympics so that Zhang Ning would beat Zhou Mei and reach the final. Zhang eventually won the gold in Athens. And South Korea have also done this in the Thomas Cup.