After recovering from a shoulder injury that kept him on the sidelines for the last two months, Indian shuttler Sameer Verma was looking forward to resuming competitive play at the Canada Open in Calgary, scheduled from July 11-16. But he was in for a rude shock as he was not granted a visa on time, thus depriving him of some much-needed match play and forcing him to withdraw from the Grand Prix level tournament.
The World No. 33 was seeded third and was to start off his campaign against Croatia’s World No. 103 Zvonimir Durkinjak.
Instead, now he has to wait for another week before he can finally play a tournament which will be the US Open Grand Prix Gold that begins the week after.
A disheartened Verma took to Facebook to explain the situation and quite justifiably voice his grievance.
Indian shuttlers continue to face visa issues
It is a shame that international athletes from India are subjected to this time and again. This is not the first time that Indian badminton players have had to go through this ordeal.
This comes just days after Sameer’s compatriots - Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy - faced similar problems. The two along with doubles ace Sikki Reddy were left in the lurch and had no idea when their visa for the New Zealand Grand Prix Open would be granted.
With just a couple of days to go until their impending departure to Canada to participate at the Canada Open, the Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap frantically appealed for help from the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Sports Minister Vijay Goel, whose timely intervention solved the matter for them.
A month ago, HS Prannoy, who dazzled at the Indonesia Open, had to resort to Twitter to assure himself of a chance to participate in the said event. Prannoy and Sikki had been unsure of whether they would be able to make it as they did not get hold of their respective passports until just a day before the players were scheduled to fly out to Jakarta.
The matter only got resolved after Goel had a look into their plight.
The Badminton Association of India needs to have a proper system in place to avoid shuttlers going through such major hassles. Worrying about the visa is not their job and the Federation should ensure that it does not happen in the future.
