Banned from Philippines, China gives up on February

The Chinese national badminton team has pulled out of all international badminton events in February after a travel ban foiled their plans to compete in the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Manila this week.

Photos: Badmintonphoto

Ever since the government of the Philippines issued, on February 2nd, a ban on all foreign travellers arriving from China, Macau, and Hong Kong in response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, Badminton Asia (BA)  has been silent on the issue, at least publicly.  However, yesterday the Malaysian daily New Straits Times quoted an unnamed BA official as saying that the Hong Kong and Chinese teams would indeed be absent from this week’s Badminton Asia Team Championships and that a re-draw would be held today.  The Badminton Asia website took the trouble to announce the withdrawal of the Indian women’s team more than a day after it had been widely reported in the Indian media, but made no mention of the status of the four teams facing a travel ban or of the plans for a re-draw.

Late in the day on Saturday, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post had reported that Badminton Asia had tried to intervene and help but that in the end, a Hong Kong attempt to show up in Manila, which they had planned to do on Friday, would result in a 14-day quarantine.  Rather than subject the team to such treatment, Head Coach Tim He Yiming said he instead intended to take his players to Europe early, in advance of the German and All England Opens.

As for China, not only has the Philippine travel ban blocked both men’s and women’s teams from this week’s continental championships but the nation’s shuttlers have been wholesale withdrawn from the Spain Masters next week, with the possible exception of Liu Cheng and Huang Kaixiang.  This is on top of the earlier withdrawals of younger Chinese players from the Austrian Open and from the German and Dutch Junior Internationals.

China’s two teams and India’s women will still qualify for the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in May but there has been no word yet from the Badminton World Federation on whether any special concession will be made for Hong Kong.  Hong Kong qualified for both the Thomas and the Uber Cup Finals in each of the last three editions but this year, the women needed a semi-final placing in Manila while the men can hold onto the last spot via team ranking only if Thailand’s top players see no increase in their individual rankings and do no reach the semis.