India willing to host Sudirman Cup 2023 if China fails to do it, says BAI secretary general Sanjay Mishra

New Delhi, January 2023: Badminton Association of India (BAI) is willing to host Sudirman Cup 2023 if China is unable to do so in May, said the national body's secretary general Sanjay Mishra. BAI sees New Delhi as the venue after the federation hosted the India Open Super 750 tournament in the national capital.

China couldn't organise hoards of international sporting events, including last month's BWF World Tour Finals, since an increase in COVID-19 casualties in the East Asian nation. This has added to international badminton's headache with the Sudirman Cup (World Mixed Team Championship) slated in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou from May 14. The city was earlier supposed to host the prestigious event in 2021 before COVID-19 pushed it back to 2023.

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Amid the uncertainty, India made a request to the world badminton federation (BWF) to host the event over a month ago.

"We have requested BWF for Sudirman Cup hosting if China is unable to host it due to the situation in their country," BAI secretary general Mishra told MyKhel on Sunday. "BAI president (Himanta Biswas) has said that government will support us if we get Sudirman Cup hosting rights but we have to wait and see if China can still host it."

All eyes are now on China Super 100 tournament from March 14. The event's venue city is yet to be decided and its postponement would mean BWF will consider looking for an alternative option for Sudirman Cup. BWF last month shifted the World Tour Finals to Bangkok from Guangzhou while moving the tournament a week ahead of the scheduled date.

BAI is also bidding for the BWW World Junior Championships in October after the USA backed out from hosting the event in Hawaii. Another BAI source added that Sudirman Cup remains the priority and the federation will push for the Junior Worlds if BWF doesn't grant them hosting rights for May's event.

BWF happy with fans turnout at India Open

India's request for hosting the Sudirman Cup got a further boost with BWF delegates, including its council member Vishu Tolan, appreciating the fans turnout at Sunday's concluded India Open despite the early exits of all local favourites, including PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal.

"BWF officials were happy to see how the fans in New Delhi turnout for the foreign players despite Indian players getting out early. They also appreciated the arrangements that were made for the tournament," said Sanjay.

Interestingly, India was in the run to host the Sudirman Cup in 2023 itself. However, BWF later decided to grant it to Suzhou, who couldn't organise the tournament in 2021 due to COVID-19. India was instead granted the hosting rights for the 2026 BWF World Championships.

China has already failed to host a number of major events in 2023 due COVID-19 outbreak. This notably includes Formula 1's Chinese Grand Prix (the fourth year in a row) in Beijing and March's World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
Late last year, Chinese badminton federation called off Hong Kong Open and Macau Open while Asian Games in Hangzhou was the biggest miss with a year postponement.