SHILLONG: It’s official now that Shillong will host the badminton discipline during the upcoming 12th South Asian Games scheduled to be held from February 5 to 16.
In a letter issued by CEO, South Asian Games, Guwahati, Injeti Srinivas addressed to the State Chief Secretary PBO Warjri on Saturday, it was informed that the badminton discipline has been restored back to Shillong. The letter was made available to the media on Sunday.
In his letter, Srinivas categorically stated that the Organising Committee of the 12th SAG had no intentions whatsoever to shift badminton from Shillong to Guwahati. However, repeated concerns raised over accommodation of athletes forced the Games Technical Conduct Committee (GTCC) to shift the venue out of Shillong. “The issue of shifting the badminton venue from Shillong to Guwahati had first come up for discussion at the 3rd GTCC meeting held in Guwahati on December 3, wherein, the competition director strongly recommended shifting of venue on the ground that the SAI-NEHU venue at Shillong was deficient in lighting and other playing conditions. However, the Organising Committee turned down the proposal and recommended that shortcomings, if any, in the Shillong Venue should be made good. Subsequently, the matter was again raised at the special meeting of the GTCC held at SAI Headquarters, Delhi on December 16. But it was categorically stated that the OC does not approve of any change of venue from Shillong to Guwahati or vice versa,” Srinivas stated in the letter.
“However, the matter once again surfaced when a shortage of 50 rooms in Shillong was flagged to the OC. Since, the athletes are expected to be provided with at least three-star hotel accommodation, it became imperative to shift out a sport discipline having around 100 participants (including team officials). As Badminton and Wushu were the only two sport disciplines with around 100 participants each, the GTCC decided to shift badminton venue from Shillong to Guwahati keeping in mind technical shortcomings that were earlier flagged by the competition director,” he said adding that at no point of time did the OC-SAG had the intention of depriving Meghalaya of the event.
It may be mentioned that national badminton coach P. Gopichand was to visit the city to inspect the venue and assess its suitability. However, his flight was cancelled at the last moment due to bad weather condition.
Srinivas added, “Since, the Chef de Mission seminar is being organised from January 11 to 13 and the OC is keen that Government of Meghalaya is fully on board for successful conduct of the Games and has on January 9 confirmed availability of adequate number of rooms, it has been decided to accede to the request of Government of Meghalaya to restore Badminton discipline to Shillong without waiting for the visit of Gopichand.”
Meghalaya had earlier threatened to withdraw from co-hosting the SAG if badminton was not restored to the State.
