On Monday, Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal took to Twitter to vent out her anger against the officials at Commonwealth Games, who denied her father Harvir Singh Nehwal access to the Games Village. If reports are to be believed, the badminton star went on to threaten the authorities that she wouldn’t be playing for the country if the issue about her dad’s accreditation is not sorted out.
In her letter to the IOA, Saina Nehwal wrote, “I msgd u and tried to call u but u didn’t pick up the call but there is so much issue going on with my father .. if his accreditation is no cleared as an official I am not going to play the matches.” Perhaps fearing that she might pull out of the game, the authorities immediately sprung into action and gave in to her demands.
The hooliganism on Saina Nehwal’s part did not go down well with a lot of Netizens who are questioning her act. “It seems ‘village’ accommodation is always difficult unless one is part of team as athlete, coach, manager, support staff. Outside accommodation seems to have been arranged. Now it looks @ioaindia has pulled off room in ‘village’ itself,” wrote one user, while another added, “So the arm twisting worked. Wah! Wah!” “That is a sad state of affairs. Gross indiscipline. Very unfortunate. Just a shame,” added another user. Users also went on to call it a ‘Childhish behaviour’ by Saina. “Its true. High time these yester years stars are disciplined. They can’t cry foul & hold Country to such tantrums,” wrote a Twitter user.
Earlier, the Indian Olympic association had tweeted back to Saina and explained why her father was not granted access. “Dear @NSaina, Mr. Harvir Singh is an accredited Extra Official! As stated in the CDM Manual of Gold Coast 2018 CWG and repeatedly conveyed to BAI (Badminton Association of India), the payment for accreditation of Extra Official does not include bed in the Games Village,” wrote IOA along with a screenshot of the manual.
The screenshot states “Training partners and personal coaches are not entitled to access the CGV (Commonwealth Games Village), or to use the Games Transport Network. CGAs (Commonwealth Games Athletes) may elect to facilitate access to the CGV through a CGA Guest Pass allocation. The ETO service charge for an extra Team Official is AUD 1,480” — which Saina has already mentioned that she paid. The rule book further states that “the service charge includes access to the CGV International and Residential zone, games time transport system, but does not include a travel grant or bed in the CGV.” Looks like Saina may not have been conveyed the specific rules by Badminton Association of India.
The ‘political’ reason?
Meanwhile, a Twitter user, Ashok Swain, presumed that there could be a political reason behind this and wrote: “P.V. Sindhu’s mother is allowed but Not Saina Nehwal’s Father to travel with the Indian contingent for 2018 CWG — Sindhu had dedicated her Korean Open victory for Emperor Modi on his Birthday, but Saina has not been that ‘smart’.”
All is well that ends well
The officials quickly jumped to resolve Saina’s problem. Tweeting a photo of Saina, her father, along with officials at CWG, the twitter handle of IOA wrote, “Accreditation resolved! Saina is all cheers now... ‘All is #Gold ?? that ends well’ #AllTheBest @NSaina for #GC2018 #CommonwealthGames Make us proud!”
