What’s the story?
Former Pakistan badminton coach Raziuddin Ahmed was extremely annoyed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Badminton Association for displaying posters of Saina Nehwal at the provincial championship held at Tariq Wadood Badminton Hall at the Qayyum Sports Complex, in Peshawar.
Sporting relation between India and Pakistan have suffered a major setback due to the ongoing bilateral political agitation. Following the attacks in Uri, the Indian government had adhered to a boycott policy against the Pakistan sporting federation.
“It is very sad that KP Badminton Association forgot to promote international stars of Pakistan at the Championship. Posting the picture of an Indian badminton player on the banners of the championship really put the head of the badminton community in Pakistan down,” Razi told The News.
In case you didn’t know
The Pakistan junior hockey team were earlier barred by the Indian government from playing in the Junior world cup hosted by India. The Pakistani management failed to produce the necessary documents required for a visa within the stipulated deadline. Ultimately, the Men in Green were replaced by Malaysia instead.
The heart of the matter
The national badminton stars of Pakistan, including Murad Ali, Rizwan Azam, Kashif Sulehri, Palwasha Bashir and veteran shuttler Tariq Wadood were all really piqued at the authorities for flaunting a picture of Saina Nehwal. They’d have preferred the organisers put their pictures instead of an Indian player.
Raziuddin got displeased when he saw banners parading the picture of Indian ace shuttler, at the 5th KP Badminton Championship. The coach has even demanded the organisers to apologise to the national heroes of the game who have been humiliated by this ‘shameful’ act.
Pakistan was also not invited to the Kabaddi World Cup held in October in Ahmedabad. Consecutively, India did not feature at the recently held Pakistan International Badminton tournament at Islamabad on the pretext of border tensions.
Sportskeeda’s take
Although bilateral sporting tours look under strain since the relation between both countries is hindered due to the ongoing political issue, we pray things finally take a turn for better and hopefully we get to see a few bilateral series’ between the sides.
Also Read: Saina Nehwal hopes to be back to her best by January end
