Saina Nehwal has not joined the national camp at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, which started August 7, as she is reportedly unhappy with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Badminton Association of India (BAI) for not including her husband, Parupalli Kashyap in the list of Tokyo Olympic probables.
Saina and Kashyap have been training at a different badminton facility near the Gopichand academy along with a few other national-level players, with only four out of the eight (PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and N Sikki Reddy ) having reported to the national camp.
Both, Saina and Kashyap, believe that the later still has an outside chance to qualify for Tokyo Olympics and have been vocal about being included in national camp to train.
According to a TOI report, Saina had personally requested that her husband be allowed to train with her at the national camp, but she didn't get a favourable response. Kashyap had written a mail to the SAI and BAI too, questioning his omission from the Olympic probables list.
He insisted that he too has an outside chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Games but he has no way to pursue it as he can't train at the camp.
Among other Olympic hopefuls, the men's doubles pairing of Chirag and Satwiksairaj, who are currently in Mumbai and Amalapuram (Andhra Pradesh) respectively, are wary of the Covid-19 threat and have decided to wait for a few more days before deciding on joining the camp. Women's doubles player Ponnappa, who partners Sikki in the international circuit, will join if there is enough clarity on the international calendar. The Bangalore-based shuttler is currently training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.
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