The third postponement of the Thomas and Uber has met with some disappointment and objections from the badminton community.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF), on their social media, said that they realized that they were “not in a position to deliver the level of competition reasonably expected by fans and all stakeholders.”
One of the requirements of the sponsors is that the top three seeded countries must participate in the tournament. But with major countries like Indonesia and South Korea withdrawing, the decision was finally made to postponed the tournament for a third time.
This decision has met with some anger and disappointment.
Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei said that BWF was “selfish” for choosing commercial matters over the player’s well being. He said that BWF bowing to the demands of the sponsors does not send a good message to the badminton community.
Through NST, he said, “As a former athlete, I feel the Thomas and Uber Cup should not go on. I wouldn’t want to play in it surely. However, postponing it due to mainly commercial interest is wrong. That is very selfish of BWF.
As the world governing body, their top priority should be the players, not their own pockets.”
Indian coach Vimal Kumar said he held the Asian countries responsible for the Thomas and Uber Cup postponement.
Kumar: What Asian nations have done, it is really disappointing. There are no major issues in these countries, they are having local events there, so to pull out in this way, is a big setback for the sport.
Through Sportstar, Kumar continued, “It was an ideal way to revive the circuit. The platform was there.”
He said that even though India did not have a strong team like China, India was ready to participate. He asked if the big countries did not participate, “what can BWF do.” He said, “I’ll blame the Asian nations for this mess.”
Danish player Anders Antonsen was quite vocal on his social media when he heard about the postponement news.
Antonsen writes, “So Thomas/Uber Cup has been postponed once again and Denmark Open 2 cancelled… So what is the plan here? Are we sitting around waiting for a vaccine to come before badminton can start up again? I see Tennis is playing in New York these days. @bwf.official it’s time to step up! Make the best and safest setup you possibly can and run the tournaments. Whoever attends, attends. Otherwise the sport will wither away and die.”
Former Olympic silver medalist Mathias Boe was a little hard on his assessment of the situation. Through his social media, he said, “This madness needs to go. Let the players play. BWF if you can’t handle the situation, find someone who can or call me!!”