New Delhi, Aug. 28 (PTI): The Indian Open badminton event featuring a host of international stars and scheduled to take place in Hyderabad from September 4 was today postponed in the wake of the recent bomb blasts in the city.
"We had to postpone the event as many teams had expressed concern due to the prevailing situation in Hyderabad after the blasts. It is likely to take place in January (7-13) now," Badminton Associaton of India President V K Verma said.
International badminton stars from 15 countries were supposed to participate in the September 4-9 USD 150,000 showcase event which also had Olympic qualification points.
The Malaysian team, fielding a strong 27 member contingent, were the first to express their concern after the blasts on Saturday that claimed 40 lives and then other teams like China, Japan, Korea etc also requested for a change in date.
"The issue is not what we see the situation from here. The impression left in the minds of participating teams from Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan was that of anxiety.
"We told them that the government will ensure fullproof security and the situation is coming back to normalcy, but they said they were suffering from anxiety and concern," he said.
