Gopichand rubbishes Jwala-Ashwini allegations

Chief Coach of the Indian Badminton team Pullela Gopichand said on Wednesday that the allegations levelled against him by Jwala and Ashwini were all rubbish and baseless. Gopi said that the duo were never discriminated and in fact had been given all support.

After winning the Canadian open Jwala and Ashwini had urged and wanted Gopi to quit as the coach and asked him to treat all badminton players equally. On the other hand Gopi said that the duo got whatever they needed or demanded and always got full support from Badminton Association of India (BAI) and Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Gopichand said: “Their allegations are baseless. All these years they got support from the government, SAI and BAI. We have never stopped them from participating in any tournament. No one said no to their demands.”

Both the players were claiming over their exclusion from the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme for the last few months and also blaming Sports Ministry over TOP scheme. However SAI Director-General Injeti Srinivas comes out in favour of Gopichand.

Neither the sports ministry nor the coach had discriminated against any player said by Srinivas.

“When a person like SAI DG comes out in my support I thought I should not remain silent. All these years I did not react as I don’t want spoil the atmosphere and also because we have to participate in the big tournament together. If they have a problem then they should come and tell us about it so that can be solved. It is sad that these things are happening,” Gopichand said.

Asked about the Top scheme issue, Gopichand told Times Now: “Top scheme has an identifying committee and it is not for me to say. There are others in the committee. Even SAI has spoken to the media about this issue. The fact is that their names were included in the TOP scheme and they are definitely getting all the support that they can get.”