Covid-19: Syed Modi International, India Open scrapped as badminton body announces adjusted calendar

The India Open Super 500 and the Syed Modi International Super 300 tournaments were on Thursday cancelled by the Badminton World Federation and Badminton Association of India as an adjusted international calendar was announced.

To salvage a season thrown haywire by the coronavirus pandemic, the BWF announced that the tour will resume with a European leg in Denmark followed by a leg in Asia.

The global governing body said that the main challenge with the existing tournament calendar was travel between different territories where different entry and safety restrictions apply.

“After discussions with BWF and after weighing the concerns of Covid-19 pandemic it’s been decided that both Syed Modi International and India Open stand cancelled for this year. The safety of players and other stakeholders connected to the game is paramount. We hope to return in 2021,” BAI said on Friday.

The India Open, which was originally scheduled in March, was to be held from December 8 to 13 in New Delhi and Syed Modi was slated for November 17 to 22 in Lucknow in the previously revised calendar.

“The Badminton World Federation (BWF) will implement an adjusted tournament calendar for the HSBC BWF World Tour in 2020,” the world body said in a statement.

“The TOTAL BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2020 in Aarhus, Denmark will remain part of the international tournament calendar and will proceed on the planned dates of 3-11 October 2020.

“All remaining BWF World Tour tournaments on the calendar will no longer take place at the dates and locations originally listed.”

BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said: “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to implement the revised international tournament calendar for the BWF World Tour as originally envisaged.

“Managing travel logistics between different territories where different entry and safety restrictions apply has been the biggest challenge. Therefore, an adjusted tournament calendar was developed.

BWF said that tournaments completed in 2020 will accumulate world ranking points, although such points will only be included with the unfreezing of the World Rankings. The exact model for the unfreezing of the World Rankings, and how subsequent rankings are structured and valued is expected to be released shortly.

The badminton season has been on hold after the All England Championship in March

(With PTI inputs)