A SAI official has revealed that the national badminton federation did not send their proposal on time and hence the players had to make their own arrangements
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Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya addresses a press conference at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Head Office, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in New Delhi on Thursday, May 22, 2025(Photo: IANS/Prem Nath Pandey)
In an unexpected turn of events, the Indian Express has reported that Indian badminton players did not receive any monetary support from the Sports Authority of India for their recently concluded European tour which featured the likes of Lakshya Sen and PV SindhuAll the players had to bare their own expenses throughout.
The report claimed that SAI did not approve the badminton contingent’s budget for their events across Finland, Denmark, France and GermanyThe players, in fact, were informed about this development just six days before the start of the Arctic Open began on October 6.
Subsequently, the players had to make alternative arrangements and travelled to Europe with their own moneyPV Sindhu, who reached the French Open final before winning the Hylo Open singles title, was in a state of shock when she got to know about it.
She described it as something she never faced before, yet it didn’t stop her from participating in the competitions“When I got to know, I was a bit shocked and wondered how the funding hadn’t gone throughI hadn’t faced something like that beforeBut at that point, I couldn’t really decide that if there was no funding, I wouldn’t play,” PV Sindhu told the Indian Express exclusively.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, stated that her focus was only on playing the matches and reach the last stages“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,” Sindhu added.
The 31-year-old also confirmed that she arranged her own funding and received some help from the Olympic Gold Quest.
“Obviously, it was surprising that we couldn’t get the funding, whatever the reason may have beenI managed the funding on my own a bit and OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest, her backers) also helped me in this,” Sindhu concluded.
When asked about the denial in releasing the funds, a SAI official stated that the Badminton Association of India did not send the funding proposal on time and hence the players had to bare the cost.
There was also a notion that the funding might not have been passed in the wake of the Indian badminton team’s poor outing at the Asian Games 2026 at Aichi and Nagoya, but the SAI official denied.
National federations are obliged to send their proposals at least 30 days before the start of a tournament and BAI weren’t able to do soThe same report also revealed that funding for future tournaments have been restored, but players will not be reimbursed for the expenses incurred.
