Miffed at the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for the administrative logjam and lack of recognition for para shuttlers, India’s sole Paralympics badminton champion Nitesh Kumar has urged the Sports Authority of India to hand over the discipline to the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) for the sport’s healthy growth.
Indian para shutters returned with 5 medals (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze) from Paris, with the 29-year-old Nitesh leading the charge with a historic gold in the SL3 class. Demanding a more professional set-up and treating the para-shuttlers at par with their able-bodied counterparts, Nitesh said that on the contrary BAI’s focus remained solely on the able-bodied athletes.
“Irrespective of the social media appreciation from BAI (which is very rare), we the athletes are highly dissatisfied with the response & the interest from BAI regarding Para badminton responsibilities. We sincerely request BAI & SAI (sports authority) to hand over para badminton to PCI (Paralympic Committee of India),” said Nitesh while replying to a congratulatory tweet from the badminton association
BAI responded to Nitesh saying, “BAI is working on a concrete plan for Para badminton & its future growth. Each of the medallists, coaches & staff will be hearing from us personally to understand, get insight on the action plan which is not alone about celebrating the success but long-term projects.”
The BAI’s response ended with #badmintonforall and hinted that a first of its kind, domestic circuit structure will be put in place.
Currently, athletics, shooting and powerlifting are managed by PCI, while other para sports like badminton, archery, and table tennis fall under the respective national sports federations such as BAI, Archery Association of India and Table Tennis Federation of India.
Nitesh, an IIT Mandi alumnus, maintained that he had pointed out the issue to the Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who assured them of looking into the matter during the meeting with the latter after returning from Paris.
“During the meeting, we raised our concerns with the sports minister recently, and he assured us of looking into the matter. There are numerous issues, with regards to administration, a proper communication channel, selection matters, sorting visa and logistical matters, to name a few. It is currently being handled only by a couple of people in the BAI when it comes to para badminton, but that’s not how it should work,” he said.
“It should be more inclusive in its approach, the para-athletes deserve equal treatment as the able-bodied ones, and thus there is a need for people who understand para sports, instead of the power being concentrated in the hands of a few who have very little inputs about para badminton,” the star para-shuttler added.
Nitesh, who lost his left leg in a train accident in Visakhapatnam in 2009, also highlighted the logistical challenges that eventually impacted the para shuttlers.
“There have been visa delays, hotel rooms not booked on time during international tournaments, many a time we were kept waiting at the airports, these are all because para sports are never given the kind of priority it demands,” he said.
“The bare minimum that can be expected from the BAI could be that the para shuttlers should be treated at par with the able-bodied one,” he concluded.