H.S. Prannoy has apologised to the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for his remarks earlier in the month. Prannoy had slammed the BAI after it had ignored him for the National Sports Awards.
"It was unfortunate to witness something like this but Prannoy had reached out to us and based on his submission, we hope going forward players will reach out to the federation if they have any concern," BAI General Secretary Ajay Singhania said in a statement.
The BAI had issued a showcause notice to Prannoy on Friday for his remarks and given him 15 days to respond. Earlier in the month, it had recommended doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and men's singles player Sameer Verma for the Arjuna Award.
Following this, Prannoy tweeted: "Same old story. Guy who has medals in CWG and Asian Championships not even recommended by the association. And guy who was not there on any of these major events recommended. #waah #thiscountryisajoke (sic.)" The 27-year-old later deleted the tweet.
Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth had disciplinary charges against them for leaving the Indian squad at Asian Badminton Championship in Manila in February, despite being advised not to leave. The players had gone to play a tournament in Barcelona which could potentially help them earn ranking points that were crucial for them to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
The BAI said on Friday that Srikanth had apologised and had been recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. It also later emerged that national coach Pullela Gopichand had recommended Prannoy's name for the Arjuna Award in his capacity as a former Khel Ratna Award winner.
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