Delhi Smashers threaten to abandon tie against Banga beats

A serious controversy in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) was averted here Sunday as Krrish Delhi Smashers almost threatened to forfeit the tie after Banga Beats replaced an injured singles player in the eleventh hour.

Delhi Samshers were upset after IBL Governing Council allowed the home team to replace Hong Kong's World No.8 Hu Yun with Jan O Jorgensen from Denmark for the second singles match. Jorgensen arrived here from Denmark only in the morning.

The Delhi team lodged a strong protest and threatened to forfeit the match. But as generous hosts, Banga Beats decided to leave out the Dane and field Arvind Bhat, who is already a part of the squad, and Delhi continued with the game.

Officials from both the teams were involved in heated discussions even as the first men's singles was being played between B. Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap.

Banga Beats owner Amit Mavi later confirmed that the visitors almost threatened to pull out.

"Hu Yun had not been well for a few days and only today at 4 p.m. was he diagnosed with an abdominal swelling for which we had to bring in the last minute change. We gave the details of the MRI scans to the IBL governing council who approved the change but then I heard that Delhi players were tweeting about this change," Mavi told IANS.

"We had talks with the Delhi team and their icon player (Jwala Gutta) said that if you do this then take all the six points, why should we play? I thought, being the hosts, let us have the match which is why we are here and decided that Arvind Bhat will play the match," Mavi added.

Jwala, when she got to know about the change, tweeted "Last min player replacement by banga beats."