India approaches Malaysian Government to allow badminton team to travel for Malaysian Open

The Sports Ministry, through the Ministry of External Affairs, has approached the Malaysian Government requesting to grant permission to the Indian Badminton Team to travel to Malaysia to participate in the Malaysian Open scheduled from May 25 to May 30. This is in light of a temporary travel ban that has been imposed by Malaysia on travellers from India, owing to the rising Covid 19 cases in India.

After the initial request made earlier this week, the Indian High Commission in Malaysia has received information from the Malaysian Government that the travel of the team may not be possible immediately. However, with 19 days left for the competition to begin, the possibility of travel cannot be ruled out completely.The tournament is one of the last events that contribute to Olympic qualification which ends on June 15.

All top Indian singles and doubles players like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy are due to participate in this.

Update:

The above statement is the corrected form of the previous press statement sent. The earlier statement is erroneous because it states that the team has withdrawn, whereas, officially it has not withdrawn and it is the prerogative of the Federation to make that decision. Secondly, there is still 19 days to go for the competition, and with the dynamic conditions, possibility of travel cannot be ruled out completely just yet.