Life ban recommended for Jwala Gutta by BAI disciplinary committee

Jwala Gutta faces some tough punishment for her role in a controversy during the recently concluded IBL

The Badminton Association of India’s disciplinary committee has recommended a life ban for India’s doubles specialist Jwala Gutta.

The ban comes in the light of Gutta’s activities in the recently concluded Indian Badminton League (IBL), where during a match against the Banga Beats, she tried to stop some players from her Delhi Smashers team from competing.

The committee has also ruled that Gutta can escape sanction if she tenders a formal apology.

In the tie between the two teams on August 25, the Banga Beats had replaced the injured Yun Hu with Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen. Gutta, as captain of the Delhi team, stalled the tie and threatened to pull her team out. The issue was finally resolved when the Beats decided to leave out Jorgensen from the playing squad and included Arvind Bhat instead. The controversy delayed the start of the tie by about half an hour.

“The disciplinary committee has recommended a life ban or suspension for a certain period of time on Jwala Gutta for her role in the IBL controversy,” said a senior BAI official.

“The recommendation has been circulated to the member associations but no decision has been taken as of now. It has not been implemented.”

S. Muralidharan, who is the chairman of the disciplinary committee, said: “I don’t want to talk about it much. It is the discretion of BAI President Mr Akhilesh Das Gupta and on an unconditional apology, Jwala can be set free. But she should feel apologetic for what happened.”

Post that tie both Gutta and the Delhi franchise were handed out a 14-day showcause notice for their role in the controversy.