BAI’s gross mismanagement turns India Open into an international embarrassment – Firstpost

New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Sports Complex is currently hosting the India Open badminton tournament. While the competition has not been marketed aggressively, some animals and birds are definitely aware of it. That the zoo is nearby might have also helped. And the unwanted visitors have arrived, much to the embarrassment of the Badminton Authority of India (BAI).

A monkey was spotted in the stands, observing rallies, as play went on in the courts below on Wednesday. There have been complaints of pigeons flying around in the venue and on Thursday, they too decided to make their attendance by
dropping poop on the court to stop a match twice.

Monkey spotted at the Practice Arena of KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium during Indian Open 2026 🤷‍♂️
pic.twitter.com/K1uPc7sDmT

— The Khel India (@TheKhelIndia) January 14, 2026

And the major issue is that these guest appearances are not the only problem, but only a small part of it. Denmark’s
Mia Blichfeldt criticised the standards of hygiene at the venue on the opening day. World number two Anders Antonsen also posted on social media that the severe pollution in New Delhi forced him to withdraw from the competition, even if it meant paying fines.

Controversies have taken different forms to strike the tournament every day, and the BAI has been caught completely red-faced. Every day they say this thing has been taken care of, the next day, something else emerges. They have nowhere to hide and their gross incompetence has left sports lovers in the country frustrated.

Sporting mess by administrators

But to single BAI out will be unfair, as this apathy is quite a regular feature in the Indian sporting scene.

The National Boxing Championships were recently held in Greater Noida. Boxers from across the country were all set to set the ring on fire until they realised that it wasn’t there. The ring was not prepared at the scheduled time.

If that did not attract enough bad press, the Boxing Federation of India were ready with another blunder. At the peak of the cold in Northern India, boxers from several states were forced to spend the evening outdoors as they were told to
vacate their rooms a day ahead of the final since their bookings were over.

Similarly, due to a lack of tickets, young wrestlers travelling to participate in the National School Wrestling Championships
had to sit on the floor near train toilets in their journey.

Boxing, wrestling and badminton are a few sports which save India from the embarrassment of returning empty-handed from the Olympics. That their biggest tournaments are treated with this disdain tells a lot about the overall sports administrators in the country.

And these are the events where the organisers actually prepare for months. One can only imagine in what conditions the athletes are training in their day-to-day routine.

In fact,
two shocking deaths of young basketball players on courts in Haryana recently laid bare the decaying sports infrastructure in the state that consistently produces Olympic medallists in a country starved for medals at the biggest stage. The less said about other regions of the country, the better.

Olympic dreams need a sports revolution

As India’s economy grows, so do its ambitions. The Narendra Modi-led government has consistently increased the budget for sports. The PM has constantly maintained that
India wants to host its first-ever Olympics in 2036.

But if India wants the Olympics to come home, it must change. In fact, not just a change, but a revolution has to be brought in the sporting scene all over the country.

While setting up better infrastructure and increasing our standards in different sporting disciplines is a project that will take its own time and effort, some things can just be solved by the sheer willingness of the people involved.

The most basic of these changes is raising the hygiene standards. That in 2025, overseas athletes complain about the cleanliness at our sporting venues is a fact that should put every person involved in organising these tournaments to shame. The only reason our own athletes do not complain about it is that they are used to it.

A country that can send rovers to the Moon can definitely keep its sporting arenas in good condition if it wants. Or it can continue to be a butt of jokes for people on the Internet. The choice should not be that hard, one would reckon.

Another simplest of things is how to properly handle criticism and make efforts to improve things. However, this is also one skill where we are lacking.

#WATCH | Delhi | On allegations of poor conditions at the venue of the ongoing 2026 India Open Badminton Tournament, Sanjay Mishra, General Secretary, Badminton Association of India, says,” This event is a test event for us before the BWF World Championships. Everyone has… pic.twitter.com/EUJOsarMO5

— ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2026

The General Secretary of BAI, Sanjay Mishra, bizarrely responded to
Antonsen’s comments about severe pollution in New Delhi by saying that he cannot judge conditions in India while sitting in Denmark.

Make of this statement what you will, but it also underlines a lack of effort in even making excuses. Solving pollution is not even in Mishra’s hands, unlike a lot of other things which were not handled particularly well, and yet he chose to take a swipe at one of the world’s best badminton players.

Mishra and BAI will once again be on trial in the World Championships scheduled in August and similar complaints would further dent India’s image in the sporting world, which we have to improve manifold if we are serious about our Olympic hopes.

All great geopolitical powers are also big sporting powers and as India’s stocks rise in the world, it cannot let its sporting scene suffer.