Top-50 shuttlers to get direct entry in National quarterfinals: BAI President

Banglore, Sep 30 (IANS) Badminton Association of India (BAI) President Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the World Top-50 shuttlers will get direct entry into the national quarterfinals.

"It will be mandatory for all the top ranked players to participate in the event. Those players who are in the world top-50, would get a direct entry into quarter-finals. However it will be limited to a maximum of eight slots out of a total of 16," he said.

Also announcing scholarships for the talented players who face financial problems, Sarma said: "Most of the times, good talented players drop out of the game due to financial constraints. Hence to support such players, we will be providing a scholarship of Rs 25,000-50,000 per month for about 20 juniors to begin with, and take the number upto 100."

Sarma assured the BAI will deal with any kind of age fraud and take necessary actions to avoid it.

"We want to erase this over-age issue by conducting the tests well before the season so that no one should undergo the mental trauma during a tournament or a camp. If a player is found overage, we will put him/her in the next category as we think the parents are the culprits rather than the players themselves," he said.