HS Prannoy fumes after being ignored for Arjuna award for the second consecutive year

Indian Ace-shuttler HS Prannoy fumes after being ignored for the Arjuna Award again for the second successive year that has been recommended by the Badminton Association of India.

The Badminton Association of India on Tuesday recommended top doubles player Chirag Shetty and Satwik SaiRaj RankiReddy and men’s singles player Sameer Verma for the converted award.
Pranoy took to Twitter to express his displeasure.

“#arjunaawards Same old story. The guy who has Medals in CWG and Asian Championships not even recommended by Association. And the guy who was not there on any of these major events recommended #waah #thiscountryisajoke,” Prannoy wrote.

https://twitter.com/PRANNOYHSPRI/status/1267848176779706370

Out of three recommendations, Satwik-Chirag won the silver at 2018 CWG, but Sameer has never played at the prestigious tournament.

The 2016 Hong Kong specialist, winning three titles to reach a carrier best ranking of world number 11. His dazzling run also earned him a place in the BWF World Tour Finals 2018, where he reached the semi-finals.

BAI said, “diligently assessed the performances of the athletes and coaches during the last four years before sending the names to the Sports Ministry for the recommendation.” Prannoy had a good run in 2018 where he won a gold medal as a part of a mixed team which comes a Commonwealth Games for the first time.

In 2017, Prannoy had defeated former World Number 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and reigning Olympic champion Chen Long of China in successive matches of Indonesia Open. Pranoy has received some support from former Commonwealth Games champion Parupali Kashyap.

As Kashyap Tweeted “Never actually understood the system of applying for an award. I hope this changes. Be strong bro,”.

As Pranoy questioned the selection criteria of the award said “If you ever want your name in the Awards list, make sure you have people who will get your name to the list. Performance is least considered in our country. Sad state of our county but can’t help it. Let go and just play until you can,”.