India Open can be hosted in December-January, BAI tells BWF

The India Open badminton tournament can be hosted in the country in December 2020 or January 2021 pending approval from the government, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has told the Badminton World Federation (BWf).

"We gave them a period of December or January for hosting the tournament if the situation (around the coronavirus pandemic) normalises and if we get the government's permission. We said that from our side, we are ready to host it in these months," BAI General Secretary Ajay Kumar Singhania told IANS on Tuesday.

Originally scheduled to be held from March 24 to 29 in the national capital, the India Open Super 500 was one of several tournaments that the BAI had suspended on March 13 due to the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Tournaments affected include the YONEX Swiss Open 2020, YONEX-SUNRISE India Open 2020, Orleans Masters 2020, CELCOM Axiata Malaysia Open 2020, and Singapore Open 2020, as well as a number of international Grade 3 tournaments," the BWF had said in the statement.

The BWF eventually announced that it had suspended all tournaments that were scheduled to take place in the months of May, June and July. Most of the tournaments that were suspended were qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics. Eventually the Olympics itself got postponed by a year and are now scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021.