India has appealed to the London Games organisers and the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to consider a fresh draw in order to give a chance for aggrieved teams like G. Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa to get into the women’s doubles knock-out of the Olympics, after four teams were disqualified by the world body.
The Indian women’s doubles team, which finished third in the group, had accused Japan of throwing its match against Chinese Taipei, but the appeal was rejected by the BWF, on the grounds that there was no evidence to it.
The president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI), Akhilesh Das, stated that a fresh appeal had been made, seeking a chance for India, with a fresh draw, to fill the vacant slots.
“Since 50 per cent of the draw is vacant, we have appealed that a re-draw be done and our team be included,’’ said Akhilesh Das.
India had beaten Chinese Taipei and Singapore in the four-member league in group ‘B’, but the fourth-seeded Japan had allegedly lost to Taipei to avoid playing one of the Chinese teams in the quarterfinals.
The three teams had two wins each, but Taipei and Japan were placed ahead of India on the basis of better points difference. A reply was awaited from the BWF.
Expelled
The BWF announced its decision to expel the Korean pairings of Jung Kyung Eun and Kim Ha Na, Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung, the world No. 1 Chinese team of Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang apart from the Indonesia duo of Greysia Poli and Meliiana Jauhari after making two disciplinary cases against the players for ‘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 Indonesian and Korean teams had appealed the decision to disqualify them, and a final decision was still not taken.
