New Delhi: India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Wednesday rubbished all the allegations levelled against him by Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, and insisted that the Indian women's doubles pair are getting all the support from BAI, SAI and the government.
After their recent win at the Canadian Open, Ashwini and Jwala had urged Gopichand to treat all badminton players equally or step down as the national coach, referring to their exclusion from the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme, which funds potential medal-winners for the Rio Olympics.
Responding to the allegations, Gopichand said: "It is too often that they have been talking about this. I think they need to be specific about what their issues and problems are. This way blaming and pointing fingers without any basis and credit is just not done.
"It is unfortunate that these things have been happening. I think it is high time we put all this to rest and we should put together our effort in improving our levels.
"I think whatever tournament they have been playing, they have been supported by SAI, BAI (Badminton Association of India) and the government of India. We also have two separate coaching camps going on with Indonesian foreign coach and doubles specialist coaches being part of it. Whatever support they have asked for in the last few years have been done and they have played quite a few tournaments."
One of the top doubles specialist, Jwala has been voicing her displeasure over her exclusion from the TOP Scheme for the last few months. Ashwini, too, recently hit out at the Sports Ministry saying they are not getting the right advice over TOP scheme.
The criticism prompted the Sports Authority of India (SAI) director-general Injeti Srinivas to come out in support of Gopichand, saying that neither the national coach, SAI nor the ministry had discriminated against any player.
