Tejinder was not organising secy: Punjab Badminton Association

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, July 6

The Punjab Badminton Association (PBA), which hosted the All-India Sub-Junior (U-13) Ranking Badminton Tournament during which parents had raised the age-fraud issue, has clarified that Tejinder Bedi was not the organising secretary of the championship.

What the clarification says

• Tejinder Bedi did not officiate as organising secretary of the tourney
• He was a member of organising team under organising secretary Chitranjan Bansal and joint organising secretary Vishal Rallan
• The PBA allotted the tournament to North Zone Badminton Academy at Mohali which Bedi is associated with

The clarification came a day after Bedi blamed the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for the age-fraud controversy in the championship. “It has to be clarified that Tejinder Bedi did not officiate as the organising secretary of the tournament just concluded at Mohali. He was just a member of the organising team under organising secretary Chitranjan Bansal (secretary C&D, PBA) and joint organising secretary Vishal Rallan, (joint secretary, PBA).

“The PBA allotted the tournament to North Zone Badminton Academy at Mohali which Bedi is associated with. He was assigned the job of looking after board and lodging of officials as well as the arrangements at the venue. The tournament was allotted on May 27 and Bedi is not even a member of the PBA or any district association of Punjab.

“The issue of overage players between the association and the parents was amicably resolved by Sanjay Mishra, honorary general secretary, BAI. Whatever Bedi had said is his personal view. The PBA fully disassociates from his every statement,” said Anupam Kumaria, general secretary, PBA.

On May 3, Bedi had received a letter from the PBA regarding his appointment as organising secretary. Later on May 7, the same association replaced him. Bedi, however, continued to claim to be the organising secretary of the tournament. Earlier, Mishra had condemned the organisers for pacifying the parents who protested by forcing the suspension of the matches for an entire day. The development becomes important as the PBA was recently reconstituted and granted affiliation after the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

“He (Bedi) is not even a part of any district association. He was only involved due to the venue. We could have conducted the championship in Jalandhar, but due to the facilities here (Mohali), including the airport, we had chosen this venue. The newly constituted body is being run by professional players and we were not aware about such politics,” said Kumaria.