SAI tightening purse strings on Sindhu & Co. after Asiad failure?

• Sindhu expresses shock over withdrawal of European tour funding.

• SAI cites clearance procedures, while BAI faces questions over delayed proposals.

• Indian shuttlers deliver notable results despite reported financial constraints.

Is a cold war brewing between P.V. Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and India's elite shuttlers on one side and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) on the other? The signs are unmistakable after double Olympic medallist Sindhu expressed shock over the last-minute withdrawal of funding for the players' European swing, reportedly following an administrative tussle.

The development effectively meant that the shuttlers had to compete without the expected financial support across four consecutive tournaments in Finland, Denmark, France and Germany, beginning with the Arctic Open in the first week of October in Vantaa, Finland.

An interview with The Indian Express, in which Sindhu spoke of her 'shock' over the withdrawal, went viral. Meanwhile, sources in SAI indicated that funding was now subject to a rigorous assessment process and could no longer be treated as an entitlement based solely on a player's reputation.

"TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) athletes get funding after many clearances and approvals. If funds are being cut, there will be a logic," sources said.

Interestingly, Sindhu spoke out after she and Lakshya had secured a double Indian triumph at the Hylo Open in Germany last week, a BWF Super 500 tournament.

The victory propelled the badminton star into the top six of the BWF women's rankings. Her return to the top eight has also opened the door to a place in the BWF World Tour Finals, an event she last featured in in 2021. This year's season-ending tournament is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou from 9 to 14 December. 

The only Indian to have won the World Tour Finals, in 2018, Sindhu has also finished runner-up twice, in 2017 and 2021. She has qualified for the prestigious event six times, missing the 2022 edition through injury. Her late-season resurgence, which included a runners-up finish at the French Open, has now been somewhat overshadowed by her rare public outburst against the sporting establishment.

"When I got to know, I was a bit shocked and wondered how the funding hadn't gone through. I hadn't faced something like that before," Sindhu said in the interview from Saarbrücken, the venue of the Hylo Open.

"But at that point, I couldn't really decide that if there was no funding, I wouldn't play. For me, the priority was to participate and focus on what I needed to do, how I needed to play my matches and keep on improving. Obviously, it was surprising that we couldn't get the funding, whatever the reason may have been. I managed the funding on my own a bit and OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest, her backers) also helped me in this," the star said.

There is considerable speculation that the abrupt stoppage of funds is linked to India's below-par performance at the recent Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, where the badminton contingent returned with just a men's bronze and failed to win an individual medal for the first time since 2014. A SAI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, however, attributed the delay to the Badminton Association of India (BAI), alleging that the federation had failed to submit its proposal on time.

The Union Sports Ministry's displeasure over India's declining medal tally in Japan — 85 compared with 107 in 2023 — has hardly been a secret, particularly after it disclosed an expenditure of Rs 700 crore during the current Olympic cycle on training, development and overseas exposure.

During an extensive performance review in the capital on 15 October, Union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya pulled up the national sports federations (NSFs), urging them to build a future assembly line of champions rather than rely on a handful of established names.

"How long will Mirabai Chanu alone keep winning medals for us? We need to produce 10 more Mirabai Chanus. Every federation must take this responsibility," the minister reportedly said at the meeting, where badminton and shooting came in for criticism over their inability to translate their reputation into medals. Athletics also faced scrutiny over its declining medal tally.

Despite financial constraints that reportedly left players competing without coaches and triggered a series of pullouts, the Indian shuttlers produced some notable performances on the European circuit. Sindhu reached the French Open final, where she lost to South Korea's An Se-young, while Ashmita Chaliha stunned world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi at the same tournament. Anmol Kharb, meanwhile, made the semi-finals of the Hylo Open.

Sindhu and Lakshya's performances in Germany, in particular, suggested that the players had plenty to prove on the court, even as questions over their funding and the administration of Indian badminton continued to simmer.