Parents of badminton player alleges unfair selection process

Ludhiana: A day before the state badminton championship organised by the Punjab education department to be held in Sangrur, parents of a local badminton player raised questions over the selection procedure and criteria followed by the selection committee.

Parents of badminton player Sanchi Arora, 9, a student of BCM Arya Model School, have written to the chief secretary of education department including higher authorities of Punjab sports department and Ludhiana deputy commissioner against the local education department officials for not selecting their daughter to take part in the championship.

They alleged that their daughter wasn’t given a fair chance to perform in the upcoming state badminton championship in the under-11 category.

A copy of compliant was accessed by the TOI, in which the girl’s father Rakesh Arora had stated that despite her daughter winning a gold medal in the inter-school badminton championship and securing the second position at the zone badminton tournament, she was not selected for the badminton tournament to be held in Sangrur.

It is to be noted that no trials were conducted to select candidates for the upcoming tournament and selection was purely done on the basis of a candidate’s performance in the zone badminton tournament.

Rakesh said “We have taken up the matter before several higher education authorities as well as authorities of the sports department. Sanchi bagged a gold medal at the inter-school badminton matches which was held just before zone tournament. Despite that she was not selected for the upcoming badminton tournament. Moreover, my daughter secured second position in zone matches as well with her exceptional performance but remained aside from the final team of the state matches.”

Deputy district education officer of primary division Kuldeep Singh said, “The department has followed a fair selection process in the formation of Ludhiana district team in the under 11 girls’ category. Parents of Sanchi Arora threatened us to register their compliant or they will take up the matter with the higher authorities. Sanchi did not perform well in the zone tournament and faced defeated with big margins from opponent players which is why she wasn’t selected for the upcoming tournament.”