London: After the disqualification of eight female badminton players for deliberately losing their respective doubles matches at the London Olympics, the Indian doubles pair of Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponappa - who made an exit on Tuesday despite winning two out of three matches - is likely to be reinstated and can replace one of the disqualified pairs.
Players from China, Indonesia and South Korea were disqualified following a formal disciplinary hearing by the Badminton World Federation. However, they were not expelled from the Games.
Crying foul over the whole incident, India on Wednesday lodged a complaint. Former All England Open Badminton Championships winner-turned-coach, P Gopichand, said India’s contingent had lodged a complaint with the Olympic committee. “The matter is taken very seriously by the organisation and it will not be surprise if strong action is taken,” he said. “The [Badminton World Federation] meeting is on. We hope that there will be some outcome.”
"We were shocked the way Japan lost. I played good yesterday as we wanted to win," Jwala told CNN-IBN reacting to the news. "It’s not [the] right way to do; it's Olympics and we should play fair. We are waiting for the news [of reinstatement] to come," Jwala's doubles partner Ashwini said.
Jwala went on and termed the whole incident as 'match-fixing' and hoped that justice would be done. "I am heart broken. I would say it is match fixing," she said adding, "I am sure justice will be done and they should be disqualified."
The players involved were China's world champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, Indonesia's Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari and two South Korean pairs - Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na, and Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung.
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