Saina Nehwal slams Badminton World Federation for 'crammed' calender

Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slammed the BWF for a "cramped" international calender, which hardly leaves any time for players to recover from injuries or be at their best at important tournaments.

Badminton World Federation (BWF) has made it mandatory for top shuttlers to play at least 12 tournaments in a revamped schedule for 2018. Nehwal said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) in New Delhi that next year's scheduled by BWF is too crammed, too tiring and too challenging, which is not right for the top players. 

Saina said she needs more time to get the best out of her. She said after the PBL there are three tournaments.Again before the World Championship there are three super series, so it is understandable why BWF decided to go for such a



schedule. 

BWF has made it compulsory for the world's top 15 players in the singles events and top 10 pairs in the doubles disciplines to play a minimum of 12 tournaments or face a penalty.

Nehwal said if BWF is trying to make badminton like tennis then they should have just 4-5 tournaments like Grand Slams with more money and coverage.Olympic champion and two-time World Championship gold medallist Carolina Marin also echoed similar voices. 

She said the schedule next year is going to be crazy and it would be tough for all the players. 

The third edition of PBL will have eight teams with 80 players, including eight World Championship medallist and nine Olympic medallist, competing over 23 days across Delhi, Lucknow, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Chennai.