Pullela Gopichand Recommends Indian Shuttler HS Prannoy For Arjuna Award

Badminton coach Pullela Gopichand recommended Indian shuttler H S Prannoy for the Arjuna award after the Badminton Association of India ignored him for a second successive year due to disciplinary issues. On June 2, BAI had recommended Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty and Sameer Verma for Arjuna award leaving out Prannoy.

Prannoy posted a tweet and later deleted it. The deleted tweet reads, "Same old story. Guy who has medals in CWG and Asian Championships not even recommended by the association. And guy who was not there on any of these major events recommended. #waah #thiscountryisajoke.”

According to the sources, "Gopichand recommended Prannoy for Arjuna on 3 June after BAI decided not to send his name. He did it as a winner of Khel Ratna and not as the chief India coach. He was not aware of the disciplinary issues." However, Gopichand refused to comment on this issue.

On Friday, Prannoy was served a showcause notice asking him to respond for his outburst against BAI within 15 days.

BAI secretary Ajay Singhania had said that, "There are several instances of disciplinary issues with Prannoy. The Federation had been very tolerant all this while but in the recent past, his attitude has forced BAI to take action and also relook at the disciplinary policies.A show-cause letter has been issued for the remarks made. If the player fails to respond in the allotted time, BAI will be taking stern action."

The governing body was not happy with Prannoy and his teammate Kidambi Srikanth as they didn't play the semifinal of the Asian Team Championship at Manila, instead left for Barcelona to play in another event. The BAI recommended Srikanth for the Khel Ratna award on Friday after the top Indian shuttler apologised for pulling out of a tournament midway. (Inputs from PTI)