India’s COVID-19 surge has thrown a spanner in the works for the Badminton team as they will have to withdraw from the Malaysian Open, scheduled from 25 to 30 May, on account of a temporary travel restriction put in place by the Malaysian Government on travellers from India. The ban came into effect from 28 April, 2021.
It dents India’s hopes for Olympic qualification as the tournament is one of the events with ranking points.
All top Indian singles and doubles players like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy were due to participate.
The Sports Ministry, through the Ministry of External Affairs, tried talking the Malaysian authorities into persuasion to permit the Indian team to participate, but owing to the steep rise in COVID-19 cases in India, the Malaysian government has informed the Indian High Commission in Malaysia that greenlighting the travel of the Indian contingent in current circumstances is out of the equation.
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