Fifteen-year-old Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy has withdrawn from India’s squad for the badminton junior world championships in Indonesia in October after being asked to play doubles instead of her preferred singles.
Reddy is ranked 12th in the Badminton World Federation’s junior world rankings for women’s singles but was not one of the four players picked by India to play in that category. She was instead put in the doubles squad by India’s selection committee.
In an impassioned letter adressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, among others, Vaishnavi’s grandmother Jakka Sowjanya Reddy wrote that her granddaughter being selected for doubles amounts to “gross injustice and cruelty”.
Soujanya Reddy also alleged in the letter that the selection committee has shown “favouritism to [India’s chief national coach] Pullela Gopichand’s daughter Gayatri Gopichand by selecting her [for singles] when she has a zero rank in the Under-19 category” according to the Badminton Association of India rankings.
“My granddaughter has been selected for doubles, paired with a singles player namely Malvika Bansod which is gross injustice,” the letter said. “Putting two single players in doubles category also destroys two deserving doubles players of their opportunities.”
Vaishnavi’s father Jakka Vinod Kumar Reddy told The Field that he has withdrawn his daughter’s name from the tournament. “My daughter has beaten players who are 10 years older than her, she has beaten players who have represented their country in the Olympics. When she has such a strong ranking in singles, it’s very, very wrong to put her in doubles.”
Vinod Kumar Reddy said that he was forced to withdraw his daughter from the Gopichand Academy 18 months ago and move to Thailand to continue her training “because of the politics”. He added that Vaishnavi has received citizenship offers from countries such as Singapore and the United Kingdom but they were not considering it for now. “If nothing is done about this even after sending this letter, I will take it to the court. We are not going to give up easily.”
Apart from Vaishnavi Reddy and Malvika Bansod, Ira Sharma is another singles player who has been put in the doubles squad for the world junior championships. The Field has learnt that Sharma has also withdrawn from the tournament, although the official reason given is that she has to take some exams at the time.
This was India’s women’s squad for the world junior championships before the withdrawals:
Singles: Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashmita Chahlia, Purva Barve, Gayatri Gopichand
Doubles: Mithula UK, Rituparna Panda, Simran Singhi, Ritika Thakar, Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy, Ira Sharma, Malika Bansod
Reserves: Ashwini Bhatt, Apeksha Nayak
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