Jwala Gutta: Castigated badminton queen or unfortunate victim of her own doing

Jwala Gutta has been embroiled in another controversy

A life ban for Indian badminton player Jwala Gutta has been recommended by the Badminton Association of India’s disciplinary committee.

The recommendation has been forwarded from the disciplinary committee to the president of the BAI who will take a final call on the matter. Jwala had already been served a showcause notice by the association for her improper conduct during the event.

The president is set to wait for a response from the player herself on the recommendation and she is likely to get seven days in which to send in her response.

Jwala had reportedly forced her team into not competing after she took offence to the fact that the Banga Beats had replaced Yun Hu, who had been carrying an injury, with Jan O Jorgensen, and was clear that she did not want the new player to feature in the tie against her team.

Her stance delayed the match by about 40 minutes with the main broadcaster close to cancelling the telecast of that match.

It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for the doubles specialist who has not been having a fine time of it the last couple of years. It can be argued though, that a fair share of the blame has to probably go to the shuttler herself.

A quite accomplished player

For the record, Jwala is a very accomplished badminton player; any player who has won the National Badminton Championships 13 times is by no means your average jobber.

That apart, she will be most remembered for her triumph at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where in partnership with Ashwini Ponnappa she created history by winning a first ever gold medal for India in women’s doubles. She also won silver in the mixed doubles with V.Diju.

The year 2010 was to prove to be a very successful year for Jwala as Ashwini and she, followed up their gold medal run at the Commonwealth by claiming the bronze medal at the BWF World Championships, another first.

They could not quite reproduce that magic at last year’s London Olympics as they lost in the very first round to the Japanese pairing of Mizuki Fuji and Reika.

Since the conclusion of that little period where she enjoyed much success, results have not been at the same level. Her rankings have seen a huge drop in that period from a career-best rank of 13 to lying at number 237 currently. In the mixed doubles, her ranking has plummeted from as high as 6th to 126th.

2013 has been particularly harsh; injuries aside, she has lost all three doubles matches alongside Prajakta Sawant that she’s taken part in on tour and has not gotten past the first round. In the mixed doubles along with Diju, she has split her four matches – winning two, losing the other couple.

The last event that Jwala took part in was the Singapore Open where she lost in the first round of the doubles.

In fact, since the beginning of the 2011 season right up to now, barring the World Championships bronze, she has not gotten past the third round in a single Super Series event in either the doubles or the mixed doubles (doubles with Ashwini Ponnappa and mixed doubles with V. Diju). And she entered 28 tournaments in that time period – a huge drought.

The gold medal winners from the CWG – Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta

She was one of the six icon players in the inaugural Indian Badminton League and was picked up by the Delhi franchise. As captain, she played one game of mixed doubles (the first) and did not feature after that citing injury.

Over this same period, controversy has followed Jwala around like her shadow. Tripping and tumbling, from one controversy to the next, Jwala has even earned the tag of the ‘controversy queen’ of Indian badminton.

The charge-sheet

First came the news about her dating former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin in 2010 before the Commonwealth Games, at a time when Azhar was set to separate from his wife Sangeeta Bijlani. It was also a few months before Jwala split with her husband Chetan Anand, a badminton player himself and Arjuna awardee.

Those rumours were quashed by both Jwala and Azharuddin, with Jwala even going on to say that it had all been started by someone from the BAI in an effort to malign her.

She made news again a few months down the line when she was spotted going out with Azhar’s son Asaduddin at many a social gathering and even store launches in her hometown of Hyderabad. She even snapped at a photographer who was attempting to click pictures of the two at an IPL after-party.

A source from the BAI had this to say on the issue at the time, “We always knew that she was going out with Azharuddin, but if she has been spotted with his son Asaduddin too often, then I don’t know…”

No matter the outcome, the two stories featuring father and son made her grab quite a few headlines garnering plenty of attention.

Post the 2012 London Olympics came the news of her indefinite ‘game break’ during which she planned to get into movies and pursue some other interests of hers. She went on to do an item song in a Telugu movie called Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde and went on to appear in a few fashion shows as well.

She also got embroiled in a massive row in which she wasn’t even the prime party. Young badminton player Prajakta Sawant kicked things off when she claimed that there existed a huge bias in the national selection policy thanks to national coach Pullela Gopichand who she said was favouring players from his academy whilst ignoring the others.

Jwala Gutta made her two cents on the issue known and escalated the issue into a massive row. She came out in support of Prajakta and said favouritism and politics had hurt the game in the country. She lashed out at Gopichand and questioned how the national coach could also operate a private academy simultaneously.

The medal winners from the Commonwealth Games of 2010 at the Gopichand Academy

She had said that everybody knew what really happened behind the scenes, but that nobody was willing to come out in the open with it.

The IBL served as the next battleground for Jwala to launch her latest tirade. Even before the start of the tournament came her outburst on her base price being halved without a word being said to her.

There was the match between Delhi and the Banga Beats for which she was served a notice. Not only did she threaten to boycott the game, but she also got into an argument with one of her own players, Sai Praneeth, who defied the team’s stance and opted to get on with the tie.

In spite of claims by Delhi representatives that the change of player by the Banga Beats was against the rules, BAI Vice-President TPS Puri, came out and said that a rule did exist.

“Anyone incapacitated would be checked by a medical commission, and a replacement who was lower ranked, and lesser in base price could be included,” Puri said.

To cap things off, she also got involved in a war of words on Twitter with India’s top player Saina Nehwal. It was an off-the-court rivalry that everyone knew existed, having started post the Commonwealth Games success of both. Jwala had expressed her disappointment at how there was a certain treatment meted out to Saina Nehwal and a different one to the rest of the players.

Saina Nehwal had responded to former men’s world no.1 Taufik Hidayat’s complaint about what he perceived as unfair treatment on the part of the organisers to pay Indian players more than the foreigners, saying that Hidayat was a retired player and hence could not get the highest base price in the IBL. The two of them were teammates on the Hyderabad Hotshots franchise.

“I think world number one (Lee Chong Wei) got the highest price (of $1,35,000). I don’t think there is anything unfair about it. He (Hidayat) should accept it that he has retired now so you can’t get the highest base price of course. It’s a negative thing to speak like this.”

“Of course, he (Hidayat) is a great player, he has achieved so much. But right now I don’t think he should expect to get more than what he is getting. You see Lee Chong Wei is getting the highest money. It’s a fair thing,” Saina had said.

The comments from Saina were met with outrage from Jwala who took to Twitter to let Saina know exactly how she felt.

“Taufik Hidayat is one of the greatest players….and I don’t think u can dismiss his views just because he has “retired” from the game!!!!,” wrote Jwala.

“I don’t know how anyone can talk about him in such manner……without giving him and his stature any respect…it’s absolutely sad!!!!,” she added.

Though Saina was not named explicitly in the tweet, it was pretty obvious who the jibe was aimed at.

“No matter how big u have become in sport I think one should try and ustand what ur fellow players views r And work on it!!!,” she tweeted.

“Nobody can take away his achievements….just because he’s RETIRED!!!! He is and will always be one of the greatest badminton player!!!!

“And again it’s not about money….it’s about RESPECT!!!!!”

A long drawn out Twitter battle between the two players continued for some time afterwards away from the public’s eyes.

Crucified star or flippant celebrity?

So as one would notice reading through the various transgressions, while a few of the instances may have been created by the media, it is Jwala who has whole-heartedly waltzed into some of these controversies, even in situations where she wasn’t in any way involved in the first place.

That’s why the quintessential question that it leaves one with right now is that who exactly is Jwala Gutta? Is she still the badminton player that made history for India or has she moved on to being more of a celebrity who is a little too eager to garner attention?

There is no denying Jwala’s achievements in the past, she has received the fame and adulation due to her for those successes and has come to be instantly recognised by badminton as well as general sports fans in India.

Garnering attention is not necessarily a bad thing. Just ask Ashwini Ponnappa.

Jwala Gutta spent more time on the sidelines for the Delhi Smashers at the IBL

Both Jwala and Ashwini became famous overnight after their successful medal-winning partnership. Even after the IBL auction, both players had an issue with the base price fiasco and made their reservations know. But Ashwini had a splendid tournament to back up her claims and led her Pune Pistons team into the semi-finals.

In partnership with Joachim Fischer Nielsen, she formed one of the best mixed doubles pairings at the event and they lost just one of the five matches that they played. And even on the badminton tour, though results have not gone her way, she has been trying to make a good fist of it with her new partner Pragnya Gadre.

Also the public spats with Gopichand, Saina Nehwal and the others has not exactly been in good taste. Whatever issues she did have with them could have been handled in a much better manner? Also, if it is true that favouritism and bias existed on the part of Gopichand, why didn’t Jwala highlight them herself earlier as opposed to joining in post an initial complaint by another player.

At the IBL, Jwala was regularly seen on the sidelines cheering her team on. So was Taapsee Pannu who came down for a lot of the Hyderabad matches!

It has been revealed that Jwala will partner with Ashwini once again in a bid to compete together at the Commonwealth Games next year where they will be defending their title. But, has too much water passed under the bridge already for Jwala to try and reclaim her spot of honour that she once owned?

The indefinite break in between where she tried her hand at acting and modelling were also speed-breakers. There is, of course, perfectly nothing inappropriate about that, just that it came at an odd time.

Serena Williams took a break for close to over 10 months to pursue similar exploits after a bout of depression. And it helped her big time, as it returned her to the tour a rejuvenated player. It also had a lot to do with a burning desire to play tennis that always existed within Serena. One does not know that yet about Jwala.

Is she still as committed and serious towards badminton as she was three years ago? She has mentioned that she plans to get into acting, but would that be at the expense of her playing career or post her hanging up her boots?

Also Jwala has claimed that she has been a victim of the system on many an occasion. Even in the latest case of the life ban, her father has come out and said that his daughter is being targeted by people with ulterior motives within the BAI and that they may complain to the Sports Ministry about it.

For badminton fans, the rise of Saina Nehwal along with Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta represented a sort of ushering in of an era where Indian badminton would have a major presence on both fronts in the women’s game.

Saina has gone on to fulfil that promise and has maintained her status as a world-beater successfully until now. The doubles pairing has faded away.

More than anything else, it is the loss of a good player from the country’s setup that perhaps causes the most disappointment. Whether it’s fame, injuries, the controversies or just plain loss of desire, only Jwala will know.

What do you think? Has Jwala Gutta’s name has been unfairly tarnished by those around her or does the blame lie squarely at her own twinkling feet?