Saina Nehwal has a massive task in the opening round of the All England Badminton Championship. (Source: PTI)
Star shuttler Saina Nehwal, in a series of tweets, claimed that her father Harvir’s name has been cut from the team official category. The Sports Ministry had stated that parents of Saina and PV Sindhu will be travelling at no costs to the government and were cleared to be part of the Indian contingent. But Saina said that her father’s name was cut from the official category and he can’t stay with her, enter the Commonwealth Games Village in Gold Coast or watch her matches. Saina tagged the Commonwealth Games Federation in her tweets and stated that her father’s support is important to her and she relies on him during other matches.
Surprise to see that when we started from India for commonwealth games 2018 my father was confirmed as the team official and I paid the whole amount for that but when we came to the games village … his name was cut from team official category .. and he can’t even stay with me .
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) 2 April 2018
He can’t c my matches and he can’t enter the village nor he can meet me in anyway .. what kind of support is this ..@thecgf
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) 2 April 2018
I wanted his support as I regularly take him for my competitions …but i didn’t understand why nobody informed me all this earlier .. that he can’t enter anywhere #CommonwealthGames2018
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) 2 April 2018
Saina’s father Harvir and PV Sindhu’s mother Vijaya are among the 15 individuals who, despite being cleared to be part of the Indian contingent, are not funded by the government for their travel, stay and other expenses. There were initially doubts over whether the government would allow the parents of India’s top two shuttlers to travel with them as part of the official contingent. Eventually, their names were cleared at no cost to government. “Harvir and Vijaya were not assigned any role by the badminton federation so it is evident that they are travelling just as parents and not as coach or manager. Keeping that in mind, it has been decided that the government will not pay for their trip,” a ministry official said.
The Sports Ministry faced flak for its decision to not allow a number of coaches and family members of the athletes to travel to Gold Coast. This included shooting coach Ronak Pandit and husband of pistol shooter Heena Sidhu. The contingent list does not include any coaches or managers for the seven-member gymnastics team.