Players are bring made line judges and ask to pay large sums of money as entry as the governing body for badminton, Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB), is currently conducting the Nationals and Junior Nationals at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium and SLB courts in a very irregular manner, the Sunday Observer learns.
Even the notice put up at the venues state that it is the 70th Senior and 38th Junior Nationals respectively displaying total ignorance on the part of SLB. But in reality the occasion marks the 50th annual event for juniors that makes SLB’s 38 years hilarious as the Sri Lanka Schools Badminton Association was inaugurated in 1970 and began entering players the following year. Moreover, the players have pocketed out large sums of money as entry fees. The lowest entry fee per player is Rs. 750 for a singles event while it is Rs. 1000 for doubles plus a registration fee of Rs. 250.
Despite all these monies being pumped into the coffers of SLB the tournament is conducted in a very unprofessional manner. The children are acting as line judges and there are no umpires or Technical officials.
They have also not made arrangements to look into an alternative when there is a power cut. Players have to wait until the electricity supply is resumed and by that time they have cooled off. Due to this, matches are often played until late in the night too.
Most of the juniors first played in the Zonal tournament which is considered as the qualifying round. Only the winners, runners-up and semi-finalists were picked to play in the final round.
Winners, runners-up and second runners-up will receive certificates.
According to analysts, SLB is one of the most unhealthy sports bodies in the country and the Sports Ministry does not care two hoots.