Mumbai: Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) has agreed to include two additional players in the state squad following a petition in the Bombay High Court that alleged the selection process for a national-level badminton tournament was arbitrary.
Jui Agaskar, a Thane-based player, had filed a petition in the High Court against her non-selection for Inter-state Inter-zonal and Senior National Badminton Championships to be held in Guwahati, Assam in January.
Agaskhar has represented state at various tournaments and even represented India at International satellite Badminton Championships in 2006, her lawyer Rahul Thakur said.According to MBA’s selection rules, points earned by the player in various state/national level tournaments is the sole criterion of selection. According to her petition, Jui, Sanyogita Ghorpade, Prajakta Sawant and Arundhati Pantawane had four points each from earlier games.
But the MBA selection committee decided to send only Pantawane and Sawant - along with two others - in a four-member team.
The petition contended that as four players had same points, there should have been a selection match. Instead Agaskar and Ghorpade were dropped arbitrarily. Interestingly, selection matches were held for men’s team.
The selection process was “unconstitutional” as it denied equal opportunity to all players, the petition said.
However, after the petition was filed, MBA apparently had a rethink.
“We were informed two days ago by the association that both Agaskar and Ghorpade are in the team. So we would now withdraw the petition,” said advocate Thakur.
The tournament at Guwahati would be held in the first week of January.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, December 20, 2009, 16:04