No national duty for Jwala: BAI

Doubles specialist Jwala Gutta faces a hiatus in her career with the Badminton Association of India on Monday deciding not to consider her for selection “in any international tournament inside or outside India” until the finding of an independent committee, set up to go into the punishment proposed over the Indian Badminton League row in August. On Monday, the BAI appointed a three-member committee — comprising Anandesh-war Pandey, joint secretary of the Indian Olympic Association; Deepa Mehta, Luge Federation of India president and Swati Shukla, former member of the CWG Organising Committee — to look into Jwala’s case and submit its report within a month. The BAI said the decision was taken “to satisfy the principles of natural justice”. “Till the submission of the report in this regard by the aforesaid committee, the name of Ms Jwala Gutta shall not be considered by the selection committee, BAI for participation in any international tournament inside or outside India,” BAI general secretary Dr Vijai Sinha said. The decision also meant Jwala will miss out on forthcoming tournaments including next week’s Denmark Open, where she was due to renew her partnership with doubles star Ashwini Ponnappa. They had also confirmed for the French Open starting October 22. While Ashwini refused to comment on the development, she said: “We are going for the tournaments.” Last week, the BAI disciplinary committee headed by vice president S. Mural-idharan had recommended a life ban for the shuttler or a six-year suspension from all badminton activities in the country or a conciliatory re-rapprochement in case she submitted an unconditional apology and had left the final decision to the BAI president. The reason: Jwala had tried to stop some players of her franchise, Delhi Smashers from playing against the Banga Beats in the IBL. The controversy erupted during the August 25 tie when the Smashers threatened to pull out against Banga Beats over the last-minute replacement of injured singles player, Hu Yun of Hong Kong with Denmark’s Jan Jorgensen.